Hannibal Rising
Rated: R 
What makes Hannibal Lecter unique among the great maniacs of cinema? He can talk. Sure, he also eats people, but that brutal behavior is the juxtaposition of his massive intellect. He’s terrifying because he gets inside your head and plays with your soul. Unfortunately, rather than focus on the man who went “quid pro quo” with Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs, he’s merely become the caricature who uttered “I ate his liver with fava beans and nice chianti.” What’s a great moment of self-awareness in a character who’s mocking his own monstrosity has become the fodder for other directors to turn him into a killer that’s no different than Freddy, Jason, or Michael Myers. Hannibal Rising, a prequel to the Hannibal Lecter saga, falls even shorter by not only ignoring the character’s wit and genius but by turning him into the softest of anti-heroes. The plot of the film is revenge as Hannibal (Gaspard Ulliel) tracks down the men who ate his little sister as an act of survival during World War II. But the film makes these men so monstrous and so simplistic that Hannibal’s revenge seems selfish, especially when he’s surrounded by those who also lost everything in the war, including his aunt, Lady Murasaki Shikibu and the world’s least threatening War Crimes Detective, Inspector Popil. Other than the cannibalism, there’s hardly any real connection to the Hannibal we know and love. This Hannibal isn’t a serial killer as much as he is a dark avenger. His aunt is Japanese so naturally she teaches him how to use a samurai sword (Samurai are cool seems to be the only rationale for their inclusion in Hannibal’s history). Whereas Dr. Hannibal Lecter loves the study of the mind and became a psychologist, this young Hannibal is taciturn and only flickers to life during his brutal kills. Despite Ulliel’s tremendous screen presence and director Peter Webber’s earnest (if uninspired) direction, Hannibal Rising is a denigration of an icon. Rather than the fascinating exploration it should be, the film truncates the character and does nothing but feed the appetite of gore-hounds who can’t wait for the next Hostel or Saw. Words by |