Hannibal just doesn’t work as an anti-hero. The other performances are very phoned-in, including Rhys Ifans as cartoonish villain Vladis Grutas. Gong Li is much better as Hannibal’s affluent aunt and love interest (they’re not blood related but still…) though her chemistry with her nephew just feels off, and not just because it is somewhat incest-y. His acting could not have been flatter if someone beat it with a meat tenderiser. Now it would have been unwise for Ulliel to try to copy Hopkins’ iconic performance, but he could have at least tried something. It’s a far, far cry from Anthony Hopkins’ Oscar-winning portrayal. For the entirety of the movie he has about two expressions: blank and menacing. One of the biggest issues is Gaspard Ulliel as the titular character.
It was easy to choose the bottom entry on this list as Hannibal Rising is just not a very good film. The prequel focuses on the origin of Lecter and his quest to get revenge on a group of former World War II deserters who ate his young sister Mischa at the family lodge in Lithuania. Well it seems they couldn’t wait to adapt the last novel as the film came out just one year later, and from a screenplay by Harris himself. Harris’ Hannibal series features four novels, the aforementioned “Red Dragon” and “The Silence of the Lambs” as well as 1999’s “Hannibal” and 2006’s “Hannibal Rising”. With a five-course-meal-sized SPOILER ALERT for both the novels and films let’s dig in! #6 Hannibal Rising (2007) Please take that off.
With the Silence of the Lambs having turned 30 on January 30 (golden anniversary, that’s cool) and a recent trailer for the CBS series Clarice (focusing on franchise protagonist FBI special agent Clarice Starling) it is the perfect time to do a ranking of all franchise entries featuring Hannibal the Cannibal. The psychiatrist and cannibal first appeared in the 1981 novel “Red Dragon” by Thomas Harris, but it was his appearance in the 1991 film adaptation of the 1988 sequel “The Silence of the Lambs” that forever cemented him in pop culture.
Just the name alone is enough to conjure up bloody and disturbing images.
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