Review of Red Dragon (1965) by Victor T — 13 Aug 2014

Between "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal", audiences had to wait ten years to see their favorite cannibal again on the big screen but between "Hannibal" and "Red Dragon" there was only one year, but with the big letdown that Scott made and the fact it had a rushed production, fans of the Lecter caharcter were wondering if this would be THE sequel to "Silence".

Set up before the events of "The Silence of the Lambs", FBI agent and psychologist Will Graham is retired until former coworker Jack Crawford looks for his assistance in order to catch a new serial killer known with the alias "The Tooth Fairy". Graham realize that he can't find this serial killer alone so he goes to consult his former "mentor" that he put behind bars: Dr Hannibal Lecter.

Having great directors in the past installments, the fact that Bret Ratner is the director of this Hannibal prequel is not a good sign and even most audiences were done with Lecter after the mess that was "Hannibal". But despite the fact the story was already told in "Manhunter", its low quality predecessor and having a hated director at head of this film, "Red Dragon" still has some things to be talk about. While it has some good elements like Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ralph Fiennes, a nostalgic feel of "Silence", some pretty horrific scenes (that manage to be horrific without gore), a good score by Danny Elfman, a striking ending scene and the character of "The Tooth Fairy" is well defined; but even with those few elements, "Red Dragon" has some problems: First of all Edward Norton gives a pretty bad performance as Will Graham, Anthony Hopkins is better here than in "Hannibal" but still is on autopilot mode, Ratner direction is so heavy-handed and emulates to much the work of Jonathan Demme in "Silence" instead of trying something new, the character development is mostly tell don't show and the writing fails in creating any engaging mystery about the "Tooth Fairy".

Bret Ratner never stood a chance to make the worthy sequel of "The Silence of the Lambs" but succeeded in making a better film than "Hannibal" (Is unbelievable that Ratner made a more enjoyable movie than Ridley Scott, but is the truth). While is by no means a great film, it still is enjoyable thanks to its source material and nostalgic feel.