I Miss Anthony Hopkins

Had a bit of a boy's night out with my dad tonight, and we caught the 6:55 showing of Hannibal Rising in Bardstown. It made for a good Punisher movie, but the catch is that it was a Hannibal Lecter movie. Don't get me wrong, Hannibal Rising isn't totally awful, but it seemed like it would be better suited as an issue of Marvel's "What If...?" comics, where The Punisher is a cannibal in post-WW2 Europe. See, the plot centers around a young Hannibal, played by Gaspard Ulliel, seeking bloody vengeance against the Nazi soldiers that murdered and ate his beloved baby sister during the war. That sounds like an extreme twist on Frank Castle's origin story, if you ask me.

And I'll come right out and say it: the movie is nothing more than a slasher movie starring Hannibal Lecter. They could have named the lead character "Joe Smith," and it would have made absolutely no difference whatsoever. I did like the direction and the music, but the rest of the movie is just kinda there. And while he's no Anthony Hopkins (or even Manhunter's Brian Cox, for that matter), Ulliel isn't all that bad. The rest of the cast is serviceable, but nobody really stands out. I don't want to call the movie mediocre, but upon reflection, I think I'm really starting to lean that way. Pending a second viewing when it hits the DVD format in a few months, I'm going to give Hannibal Rising three stars out of five and a recommendation to see it only if you're a Hannibal Lecter completist.

Though in the movie's defense, I have to say that living up to the Hopkins Hannibal Trilogy would most certainly be a tough job. But at least Hannibal Rising took a shot at it.