Variety
This upmarket slasher is a well-produced but slow-moving thriller that never quite roars to life...
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Hannibal Rising
Based on Thomas Harris’ latest novel in the enduring thriller series, this prequel traces the beginnings of Hannibal Lector - from childhood to before his capture by FBI agent Will Graham in Red Dragon (Bit of history: Red Dragon was first adapted in the 1986 Michael Mann film called Manhunter which starred Brian Cox as the brainy madman. The subsequent Anthony Hopkins trilogy ended with a 2002 re-make of the same novel, under the book’s original title. The others in the series are Silence Of The Lambs and Hannibal).
Hannibal Rising follows Hannibal Lector (Frenchman Gaspard Ulliel) from his childhood during WW2 in Lithuania, time in France, and 10 years in England. Through his travels, Lector’s intelligence and the self-knowledge of his dark nature, start to become clear.
2007Rating: R18, contains sadistic violence122 minsFrance, UK, USA
Thriller
- Director:
- Peter Webber ('Girl with a Pearl Earring')
- Writer:
- Thomas Harris
- Cast:
- Gaspard UllielRhys IfansLi GongHelena Lia TachovskaDominic West
Hannibal Rising / Reviews
The New York Times
Silly, slack and unforgivably tedious, Thomas Harris's screenplay is padded with interminable flashbacks and a bombastic score that telegraphs every emotion Hannibal represses. And there are a lot of them...
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Hannibal Rising isn't a classic, but it's entertaining and a surprisingly fitting addition to the franchise...
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Premiere Magazine
The story's beginning is in a rush to get to the the killings, which get more and more disgusting...
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Hollywood Reporter
It's all quite a mess, with awkward performances, worse dialogue and a painfully protracted running time conspiring against any chance of enjoyment, even in a so-bad-it's-good guilty pleasure way...
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Empire Magazine
Gong Li is welcome as Hannibal's Japanese aunt-in-law/mentor, Gaspard Ulliel isn't a bad young Lecter and Webber's direction is intermittently classy -- but this is a footnote rather than a film...
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BBC
Unfortunately, there's none of the dark humour of The Silence Of The Lambs and the dialogue's often simplistic. Gong Li is a visual treat as Hannibal's particularly beloved aunt, but like Ulliel, her character is a bit thin. A straightforward revenge drama with added gore, Hannibal Rising is worth a watch out of curiosity, but don't expect it to give you deep, probing insights into the psychology of everyone's favourite cannibal...
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