Hannibal Rising
By Jason Tozer
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Director: Peter Webber |
The American Film Institute calls Sir Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of Hannibal Lecter the most memorable villain in film history.
The brilliance of Hopkins' Lecter was two fold. Firstly, he had the ability to create tension, fear and anticipation merely through presence on screen.
However, he also managed to embody all things evil and yet endear himself to the audience with charm, wit and intellect.
This movie proves that without Hopkins in the role of Lecter, Thomas Harris's novels are nothing more than everyday murder mysteries or slasher horror stories.
Hannibal Rising details the early years of Lecter's life from his childhood in Lithuania to his teenage years and early adulthood in France.
We see how revenge for the cannibalistic murder of his sister drives him to hunt down her killers and eventually lose grip on reality and his sense of humanity.
I expected to find the young Lecter a cheeky boyish sociopath with all the charm of Hopkins' mature version.
Instead all this film served was a lifeless and boring weirdo, portrayed by Gaspard Ulliel, whose only relation to the famous cannibal was the fact he had the same name and enjoyed eating people.
| This film served a lifeless and boring weirdo, whose only relation to the famous cannibal was the fact he had the same name and enjoyed eating people |
Not even the supporting cast can stop this mundane plot from boring you to tears. The storyline moves ridiculously slow and lacks the detailed subplots and interesting characters found in Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs .
Also this film, like Hannibal , is gratuitously violent and disgusting. The two best films featuring Hannibal Lecter, Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs , used gore for dramatic effect rather than shock value. Perhaps this is because these were the two films Ted Tally wrote the screenplays for.
Only one thing could have saved this film from being a train wreck – Hannibal Lecter. Instead we're given a lukewarm serial killer with the personality of a pet rock who just happens to share the same name as the famous villain.
Even the biggest Hannibal Lecter fan in the world shouldn't bother themselves with this.
Rating: 1 out of 5.
This review first appeared in the Queanbeyan Age
