We all know Hannibal Lecter; we’ve seen Jodie Foster go white when Anthony Hopkins chillingly utters a memorable slurping noise, and laughed when he utters the famous ‘I’m having a friend for dinner’ line.
Hannibal Lecter is perhaps one of the most recognizable characters from recent movie history; the cultivated, classic feel of old English gentry often makes us forget that Hannibal is pure evil incarnate; without compassion or compulsion he would kill you and eat you. His name inspires chills down countless backs, even though he is a fictional character.

The paradox that is Hannibal, the caring gentle artistic man that also is a mass murdering cannibal has never truly been investigated or explained – it has been hinted at, but not in much detail. Hannibal Rising tries to demystify the monster, giving us some insight to the pure evil genius that is Hannibal and the events and horrors that transformed a young innocent boy into the evil we know.

Personal note – part of the intrigue of Hannibal was the fact that the evil was never truly explained – the horrors of the past were glimpsed, but not revealed. This was part of the beauty of Silence of the Lambs and left you trying to consider what could create such a monster. Having it laid out for you in specific detail demystifies the character and by doing so, diminishes the character. For me this movie was more about creating a cash cow, than answering all the ‘unanswered’ questions – it simply was an un-needed movie in my opinion.

The Story

Towards the end of World War II as the Russians sweep through Eastern Europe eradicating the Nazi threat, a group of mercenaries take over Hannibal’s family home. This event is preceded by the death of his family, aside from his sister. Not recovered from this sad and tortuous event, Hannibal is forced to endure further emotional distress as the mercenaries kill and subsequently eat his sister. This event alone is enough to almost destroy the young Hannibal and he forces himself to suppress the memories.

Escaping and traveling to Paris, he lives with his Aunt (his blood unlce was die a year before Hannibal arrived) – Lady Muraski Shikibu – who follows the ‘old ways’ and honors her dead relatives with strange ceremonies.

Lady Muraski teaches Hannibal ancient skills of Japanes swordfighting and initiates him into the ceremonies. Meanwhile, Hannibal is studying to become a doctor, excelling in antimony and taking a keen interest in surgery as he prepares corpses for other classes.

His relationship with Lady Muraski borders on that of a lover – while not explicitly mentioned, it is hinted that the relationship becomes sexual. As their relationship grows, Hannibal forgets the Lady’s advice and after she is insulted, begins to travel a road of revenge. Initially killing a local butcher, he eventually seeks revenge on the mercenaries that killed his sister, and through this begins to find pleasure in both killing and eating his victims.

The Movie

There are some elements of the movie that are done very well and link into the other movies. The prevalence of music is obvious, and while we don’t really understand the importance of this music in his life, it does suggest that he has a keen interest in the music.
Hannibal’s skills as an artist feature prominently as we see him creating pencil drawings of his victims, some of them showing what he is actually going to his victims.
Both these elements were worked well, leading us to understand a little more of his interest for art and a little bit of his interest in music that is very evident in the future.

The plot I felt was very weak; the movie spent a great deal of time building up the main evil character, only to spend very little time on the actual interaction between the character and Hannibal. This was the most disappointing part of the movie for me; I expected Hannibal to spend more time with each victim, getting to know them, making them fear their deaths a lot more before actually killing them. The movie simply gave us some very one-dimensional characters, and really didn’t build on Hannibal’s keen intelligence and his propensity to know his victims inside out.

The plot was also very one dimensional – there was no intrigue, no hidden surprises and no real moments of tension – everything flowed to its inevitable conclusion and even this was a little too slow for my liking.

Another key fault of the movie was the actor playing Hannibal. While the acting was good, and at times chilling the young Hannibal had nothing in common with the Anthony Hopkin’s Hannibal. How this handsome tall young Hannibal became a short, slightly dumpy balding Hannibal is mystifying to me. There simply wasn’t any familiarity – the characters don’t look related, let alone being the same person – this was very disappointing to me!

The setting and atmosphere of the movie were good, giving a feel for the dank and dangerous years that they lived in, however this wasn’t quite enough to save the movie for me.

The bottom line

This movie should never have been made – it was an ill conceived idea, that not only was pointless but also didn’t transfer onto the big screen well. While gory and at times a little harrowing, it did not have the feel of ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and should be left on the shop shelf until it goes on heavy discount.




Recommended: No

Movie Mood: None of the Above
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Script