Hannibal Lecter is not only one of the best film villains of this generation, Hannibal Lecter has almost become one of the best characters in film history. Beginning in 1986 with MANHUNTER, the Lecter character has thrilled and surprised audiences with his cunning ability to control and out-wit the smartest and brightest of law enforcement. Oh yeah, he also has the most famous appetite of any movie character since...no one.
The world first came to know Hannibal in 1990's SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Who doesn't like this film? Anthony Hopkins was so strong in his portrayal of the madman that he turned a part that had just under 20 minutes of screen time into an Oscar win for best actor in a leading role. However, something happened to the series in 2000's HANNIBAL. In the film Lecter becomes an avenging angel, the ultimate anti-hero saving his beloved Clarice from her publicity hungry FBI boss. In the end, the FBI boss didn't have the brains needed to out-wit Lecter. The film was average at best. Watching Hannibal control the plot from behind bars was much more fun than watching him control and create chaos from outside of his jail cell.
HANNIBAL RISING (HR) is much the same. The film makers of HR tells the story that they think movie audiences want to know...How did Hannibal end up being a cannibal? The film begins in the midst of WWII in Romania. To escape approaching Nazis young Hannibal, his little sister, and parents leave Lecter castle to a hunting lodge in a forest. Eventually they are found. After their parents are killed Young Hannibal and his little sister are held captive in the lodge by a band of Nazi sympathizers. With U.S forces vastly approaching they are unable to leave the lodge in fear of capture. Time passes as food and drink run out. Starving and desperate the Nazis turn to young Hannibal's sister to quiet the rumblings in their empty bellies...they cook her flesh and boil her bones in a stew...they eat her.
HANNIBAL RISING is a revenge film. Hannibal survives the war and escapes an orphanage to Paris and finds shelter with a long lost relative. He attends medical school but never forgets the haunting memories of the lodge in the forest. He wants revenge and he vows that the Nazis will pay with their lives. When Hannibal finds the group still together and still up to no good the film almost turns into a horror flick. Hannibal tortures each member of the group, picking them off one by one. It's easy to dislike Nazis, the audience doesn't need them to eat humans to make them more unlikeable. The director doesn't need to hit us over the head with a frying pan to convince us that we want Hannibal to win...And are we in any doubt that he won't?
The film is well shot and kept my interest through-out. I was waiting for a better ending but it never arrived, but over-all HR is a good film. I guess comparing it to Silence of the Lambs is unfair. Silence is the fillet minon of movies, Hannibal Rising is a really good hamburger. I give it a "7".
There have been 5 Hannibal films. Below I rate them from 1-5.
1. The Silence of the Lambs
2. Manhunter
3. Red Dragon
4. Hannibal Rising
5. Hannibal
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