Hannibal Rising DVD Review
Posted by Tony Farinella on 06.05.2007
Hannibal is rising ... I think
I have a few questions for my readers: Does anybody care about Hannibal Lecter in 2007? Has anybody cared about Hannibal Lecter since Silence of the Lambs? Has anybody cared about Hannibal Lecter since he was played by Anthony Hopkins in 1991? No? I thought so. It's time for some more questions: Why was this film released? Who is Gaspard Ulliel? Why is the gorgeous Gong Li in this movie? Why did this film cost 50 million dollars to make? Why is this film over 2 hours? After watching Hannibal Rising, I had a lot more questions than answers. When your film is supposed to be a prequel, that's not a good thing. It's supposed to answer any and all questions that you have about the character. The film instead offers us commentary that is better suited for the Dr. Phil show. I had the same problems with Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. It's basically just more of the same. Why not tell us something new about the character? Why not show us a new side of him? How about you just skip the prequel all together? I'll stop with the questions for now. It's sad when you put more thought into the film than the people who made it.
We open up our film following Hannibal Lecter as a child living in a Lithuanian castle before World War 2. It doesn't take long for Hannibal to be separated from his dear family. Following this, he's left to take care of his little sister Mischa. Unfortunately, his sister is not Mischa Barton. While taking care of his sister, they are attacked by a group of sleazy bums who torture him and his sister. Okay. It's now time to put up the cue card that says "8 Years Later." Or was it 9 years later? Not sure. Moving on, Hannibal escapes from a local orphanage after he gets in trouble for picking on some bullies. Someone at the orphanage tells him that he should respect his place on the food chain. Apparently even orphans have cliques. I thought this type of behavior only occurred in high school. After he escapes, he finds himself shacked up with Lady Murasaki Shikibu, who is played by Gong Li. Apparently this woman is his aunt. I'm not sure how she is his aunt. I must have missed something. They also appear to have a strange sexual relationship going on that is never talked about. There's a lot of sexual tension between them. Not only does Hannibal enjoy cannibalism, he also enjoys incest.
Hannibal is having a tough time dealing with the loss of his sister. He often wakes up in the middle of the night after having nightmares. Hannibal decides that it's time for revenge. The only problem is that he can't remember anything about that night. He can't remember their faces or who killed his sister. Before long, Hannibal is starting to remember more and more as he gets older. He's starting to remember their faces and the horrible images of his past. Once he starts to remember their faces, he goes on a mission to seek revenge. *Yawn* Yes, that's basically the whole film. It takes them almost two hours to get to the real meat and bones of the story. Yes, that pun is intended. He's mad because they killed his sister?!! That's it? Remember the old Vincent Price movies like House of Wax? He used to kill people for no apparent reason. We never understood why he made people out of wax. He just did it! That's a lot scarier. The unknown is a lot creepier than some half-assed explanation from some screenwriter. In the case of Hannibal Rising, the screenwriter is the same person who wrote the book. Is the book any good? I'm not in a huge rush to seek out the book after watching Hannibal Rising.
It's time to talk about the acting in Hannibal Rising. I use the word "acting" very loosely. It's mostly a lot of grunts from the characters. We also get a lot of creepy stares from the characters. Gaspard Ulliel, who plays Hannibal Lecter, is personality-challenged. He's dull, uninteresting, and very boring. Sadly, we have to spend over two hours with this character. Anthony Hopkins created a character that was mysterious and interesting. You never knew what to expect from him. He really kept you on your toes. In Hannibal Rising, you'll be lucky to stay awake during Gaspard Ulliel's performance. I'm not exactly sure if he's to blame for this performance. Did they tell him to hold back? Maybe they wanted the character to be dark and strange. He's mostly just brutally boring. Gong Li is also wasted as his "aunt." She mostly just offers him cheesy advice on how to let go of his past. The bad guys are also straight out of the Steven Seagal playbook. They're goofy, one-note, and laughable. I was hoping for at least one enjoyable performance in this movie. Instead, we get characters that we have seen in about 50 screenplays. The price of originality is quite high in Hollywood.
In the end, I'm not sure what Hannibal Rising wants to be. Does it want to be a horror film? Does it want to be a thriller? Does it want to be an extreme character study? First and foremost, it's not very scary or gory. It doesn't work as a horror film. It's also not very thrilling. You basically watch Hannibal kill people in assembly line fashion. It's also a bland character study. The story is about as complex as connect-the-dots. Just what in the hell is going on here? I'd love to know their thinking behind this film. It truly boggles my mind. You're probably asking yourself: "Is there anything GOOD about the movie?" It's fairly well-made in terms of set design and cinematography. It's a pretty film to look at. Even so, we need more than that. We need something to engage us for over two hours. While I love Rachel Bilson, I can't look at her for over two hours. I need her to move or do something interesting. It's the same with Hannibal Rising. It's a shame that they went through all this trouble just to make a painfully bland movie. They could have spent their money on a better cast or a better screenplay.
DVD Info:Hannibal Rising is released on a single-disc edition from The Weinstein Company. This version is "The Unrated" edition. It features subtitles in English and Spanish. Everything looks to be clean and clear with the picture quality. It properly shows off the great cinematography of Hannibal Rising. The sound is also loud and booming.
Special Features:
Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary: This feature shows off five deleted scenes that total just over four minutes. Considering Hannibal Rising is over two hours, I think I'm fine with these scenes being deleted.
Hannibal Lecter: The Origin of Evil: This feature runs at sixteen minutes and walks us through the early days of Hannibal Lecter. We hear from different cast and crew members who offer their take on the Hannibal character. Nothing too noteworthy here. It's your typical behind-the-scenes feature.
Designing Horror and Elegance with Production designer Allan Starski: I feel bad that Allan went through all this hard work on such a bad movie. His designs are top-notch to say the least. I just wish his talents were shown off in a better movie. This feature runs at seven minutes.
Commentary by Director Peter Webber and Producer Martha De Laurentiis: In this commentary track, Peter talks about what it was like working from the book and screenplay by Thomas Harris. He also talks about shooting outdoors as well. I'm not too sure why a producer is on this commentary track. She offers little insight on this commentary track. Why not have Thomas Harris on this track? Again, I'm asking too many questions.
The 411: Hannibal Rising is quite a chore to sit through. It's long, over-stuffed, humorless, and quite boring. Everyone takes this story and film far too seriously. This film is way too earnest for its own good. With all that said, I admire all the work that went into making this movie. Allan Starski is a great, great production designer. Hannibal Rising is really a great film to look at. I just wish they would have had a story to go along with it. When you have no story and terrible acting, you're in big trouble. Hannibal Rising is a film that should be avoided at all costs. The film felt like 20 hours instead of 2 hours.
