Hannibal Rising

The real problem for Hannibal Rising is Silence of the Lambs, as with the sequel, Hannibal and the prequel, Red Dragon, all films that follow the screen character that is Hannibal Lecter will be compared to the 1991 original. As such, none have lived up to the Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins paring.

But Hannibal Rising has another problem, without Silence of the Lambs, it has no purpose. As a movie on it’s own it is a pointless waste of time. The viewer has to already know what Lecter will become.

As a study on the creation of a monster, it is of some interest, but the movie itself seems poorly executed, as if it is just a B-grade money grabber. One could almost assume that the studio that bank rolled the movie figured that they couldn’t compete with Silence, so why bother, just church out a quickie for profit and be done with it.

And that’s quite sad, because with a bit of refinement, more focus on certain scenes, and further exploration of the central themes and Rising could have rivaled even Silence. [more]