Hannibal Rising

Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
3/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
3/10


First, let's be clear about some important things. I love Hannibal Lecter. I love The Silence of the Lambs. It's one of my all-time favourites. In fact, I just re-watched it two days ago for fun. Every time, you get something out of it that you didn't extract the time before. It's like an onion: it has layers.

But Hannibal Rising is ... just sad. Not in terms of the ending, but in terms of how much it makes me want to weep for the poor, poor, poorly done childhood sketch of the fabulous Dr. Lecter. Surely he deserves better. Much better.

Just like the title says, this movie is about how Hannibal the Cannibal becomes, well, Hannibal the Cannibal. It's an origin story. Except dear Dr. Lecter needs no such thing. The existence of such a story simply destroys part of Dr. Lecter's character, which is pure evil. Evil doesn't need reason, evil needs no explanation. That's why evil is evil and that takes it to a whole new level of terrifying.

Apparently Thomas Harris (the creator of Lecter, since he wrote the novels the movies are based on) thought differently. Actually, he was a bit coerced because the owner of the Lecter character said he was going to make an origin movie with or without Harris' help, so Harris thought it was best that he had some control over how badly they were going to butcher the character.

Well, I can certainly think of better ways to create a little Hannibal Lecter. The aristocratic upbringing is appropriate, but the subsequent tragedies are not. His parents got killed in WWII, a bunch of Nazi deserters ate his little sister Mischa. He escaped and eventually got adopted by Lady Murasaki, his uncle's widow in Berlin, who teaches him the ways of the samurai sword. He hunts down his sister's killers and torture and kill them and yes, eat some of them.

No no no, this is now how Lecter is. He doesn't need the whole Freudian series of childhood traumas to make him who he is. He can do that all on his own. He's the amazing Dr. Lecter. He should be born into a wealthy family. He might have observed some cruel things in his childhood, but they didn't happen TO him or anyone he really cared about. Actually, he doesn't really care about anyone. He should have a little sister or a little cousin or some other little relative that disappeared mysteriously, aka he killed them because they were rude in some way, like he killed Miggs in The Silence of the Lambs. He develops a taste for human flesh because... of all the gourmet food he's had and his own curiosity. He is of course brilliant, and he hides his unusualness with such effectiveness.

This movie got a pretty bad reception, as I recall. So that's why I didn't jump on it and watch it right away when it came out first. I was bored recently so I picked it up, and yep, it is as bad as they say. I do like Gaspard Ulliel (left, who plays Hannibal in this movie) because he has an ethereal aura and I did like him in A Very Long Engagement with Audrey Tatou. But he's too good-looking and too tall and lanky for Lecter.

So overall, the movie does not impress. It kind of destroys, actually. The acting is so-so, and can be over the top sometimes (especially with the weird sadistic Nazi deserter leader). The camera-work wants to be cool but just ends up being cliched and annoying at times. The graphic content is way sub-par. Oh, I need to go wash my eyes out with the REAL Hannibal Lecter, aka the fantastic Sir Anthony Hopkins.