Movie Review: Hannibal Rising

My Rating:

This evening I saw the movie Hannibal Rising at JP Theater, Causeway Bay.

The only other movie about the character “Hannibal Lecter” that I watched, was the first, “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991), of the series. Therefore, I cannot comment on the other movies “Red Dragon” (2002) or “Hannibal” (2001), but I do like Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal much better. Hopkins plays a much later stage of the Hannibal Lecter character compared to the one in this movie. As a result, the psychosis of the character is much more developed, and Hopkins was able to make the character believable.

In contrast, this movie is the prequel to the whole Hannibal Lecter story, starting at the age of a child and tries to set the background for why Hannibal is the way he is. The actor they chose to play the adult Hannibal was, the French actor, Gaspard Ulliel, since it was a French production. But the biggest disappointment was the actress they chose to play Hannibal’s Japanese aunt, the award winning Li Gong. Not only, for the fact that she is from mainland China, she also does not look anything like a Japanese.

Gaspard Ulliel does have some good acting in the movie, and played a somewhat convincing psycho serial killer out for revenge. If you’re expecting another blockbuster based on the previous movies about Hannibal, you will be disappointed.