Review of Hannibal Rising (2007) by Jon N — 15 Apr 2011

Hannibal Lecter was a great foil in The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon. He could have been the one of the greatest villains ever in Hannibal, but villains don't make good cash cows. That's why in Hannibal and Hannibal Rising, Thomas Harris turns him into an anti-hero. So, in Hannibal, we are disappointingly robbed of seeing his full menace, and in Hannibal Rising, we are even more disappointed to see one of the most mysterious antagonists in cinematic history in a very ordinary revenge flick.

The Silence of the Lambs was very violent for its time, but director Jonathan Demme knew that tension was even more important. Peter Webber's prequel has ten times the violence (because you've got to create some nasty dudes to make Hannibal Lecter the "good guy"), but none of the tension.

Gaspard Ulliel is very pretty, has an unnerving gaze and chilling voice, but he failed to sell me Hannibal's character. After decades of appreciation for the performances in the preceding films, one needs to see an actor of Anthony Hopkins's caliber in the role, even if they aren't really playing the same character. (To be fair, I can think of only a few, and none of them are young).