Review of Hannibal (2001) by Victor T — 13 Aug 2014

With expectations immensely high thanks to its predecessor, Thomas Harris had the difficult task of creating a worthy follow-up story for Lecter and, because Jodie Foster's performance demanded it, Clarice. The wait was over ten years after "Silence" with Ridley Scott, fresh from his Academy Award winning film "Gladiator", taking Demme place in the director´s chair.

Set up in Florence and ten years after Hannibal Lecter managed to be escape from Baltimore, the now agent Clarice Starling is determined to find Hannibal´s whereabouts before a wealthy man called Mason Verger who also seeks Hannibal in order to return the favor that Lecter gave him years prior: Disfigurement and paralysis.

With the lineup and director this film has, one would think this film will be a great film from Scott or even be able to be at the same level of "Silence" but unfortunately "Hannibal" is another mediocre sequel to a phenomenal film, the failures are so evident. The acting is really a big downfall from the last installment with Anthony Hopkins´s performance having the feel of him being on autopilot and while Julian Moore had to step into an iconic role and having a huge pressure because of this, she gives the best performance she could with the script given but Clarice literally accomplish nothing in his film and proves that Jodie Foster has right when she said "it is a betrayed to the Clarice character"; the iconic villain of Lecter is now an antihero who only eats the bad guys, the mesmerizing character study is gone, while the gore was consider "intense" at the time of its release, now looks a little cartoonish; the perfect relationships with the lead characters is bland, the suspense is done terribly, the story is mediocre at best but its executed badly, useless elements that only drag this film, potential characters are just dropped, mediocre cinematography, a poorly executed pace and the directing is at times mediocre but other times is just bad, which is hard to believe with Ridley Scott at the head of this project.

"Hannibal" is one of the biggest disappointments in the story of sequels, Ridley Scott failed in his task of giving a worthy follow up of "Silence". It is not an unwatchable film but neither it is entertaining or well done.