Hannibal Rising

This is just unacceptable. Why don’t film directors ever quit while they are ahead? Instead, just so they can get cash, they decide to make a film whether or not it will be successful or liked. Case in point: the 2007 prequel to the Hannibal Lecter series, “Hannibal Rising.” As bad as it may be, I think it could have been a lot worse. MGM and its producers did give Anthony Hopkins a small amount to forcing him back into a title role.

Now let’s look back at the film appearances Lecter has made. Brian Cox was the first in the underrated Michael Mann picture, “Manhunter.” That didn’t make Lecter into one of the scariest people ever to appear on the big screen until Hopkins came around in “The Silence of the Lambs.” Since then, it has been ups and downs with this character. We had to suffer through the average “Hannibal” and the amazing prequel “Red Dragon,” but the latest, “Hannibal Rising” was enough to never make another Lecter book or movie again.

Author Thomas Harris can really sink into his obsession of Lecter, but he seems to be hungry for money the way the cannibal is hungry for human organs. So we have to put up with this painful prequel that tells his origin. It’s just an unwatchable cluttered junk movie where you see Gaspard Ulliel playing the young Lecter.

For those of you who watched “The Silence of the Lambs,” you’ll know that there was only a passing mention of Lecter’s youth. It’s the same way how Kyle Reese explained to Sarah Connor in the first Terminator movie how the war started, but the filmmakers feel that they should show in the sequels how the war started, as if explaining wasn’t enough for them. In this prequel, it gives viewers that when Lecter was eight (portrayed by Aaran Thomas at eight) that he changed from such a great boy to a horrific monster after what the Nazi soldiers did with his little sister, Mischa, played by Helena-Lia Tachovská. The film then goes on to show us that he had samurai training from his aunt, Lady Murasaki, played by the hot Li Gong, also learning to cook, studied in medical school, and a very dangerous battle against the Russian soldiers who could have been involved in killing Mischa.

Peter Webber directed this film, and it’s his second, as you can obviously tell when watching it. Sean O'Connell stated in his review that this film is “Ugly and drab, the film has the mood of a morgue. It falls back on predictable slasher-film clichés (gone is the thrill of the chase that drove Lambs), and reduces Hannibal to a one-note joke of a villain, a soulless killing machine with as much depth as a contact lens.” After you watch this film, I would be surprised if you don’t miss Hopkins in the role of Lecter.

Sean O’Connell goes on to say, “By this point, a Lecter prequel would only appeal to the most dedicated fan base, and yet Rising makes mistakes that will drive the core audience crazy. I'm not talking about the easy plot holes, the ones you could drive a truck through. Though you might ask yourself why, after 10 years, the chateau where Hannibal and Mischa were held prisoner remains untouched, even though there was a working orphanage right next door.” What happened to the sympathetic Hannibal that we knew and loved, or the man who knew how to get inside your head? That’s what made him so great in “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Red Dragon.”

At least Sean O’Connell states, “No, I'm more bothered by a particular scene that's included for dramatic effect, even though it messes with Lecter's mythology. You might have seen the shot on the poster.” When you look at the movie poster, Lecter is wearing the famous mask that you first saw in “Red Dragon.” You would get nostalgic of “The Silence of the Lambs” when you look at the image, as the guards who would put the straightjacket on Lecter. In this film, we see that Lecter didn’t choose to wear this mask, it was forced on him. This is a huge slap in the face of the fans base of Lecter who will get mad at the filmmakers of this film who can’t even get Lecter’s past right.

Bottom line: avoid this film at all cost. Just watch “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Red Dragon” since they are the only good ones in the series. How ironic that the films with Lecter’s first name in it are the bad ones. Also, if you want to check out “Manhunter,” then by all means do so, since I believe that film is also good. This film I would have to give a 0.

Looks like I have completed all the Hannibal Lecter series. Check in tomorrow when I will go underwater to look at the next series for “Halloween Month.”