Hannibal Rising (2007)

Directed by Peter Webber. Starring Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li, Dominic West, Rhys Ifans, Kevin McKidd, Richard Brake, Stephen Walters, Aaron Thomas, Ivan Marevich, Charles Maquignon, Helena-Lia Tachovska. [R]

We didn’t need “origin stories” for Darth Vader or Maleficent, and we sure didn’t need one for Hannibal Lecter either, but that’s precisely what novelist Thomas Harris gave us in 2006, and the feature film based on his own screenplay adaptation was predictably hot on its heels (what’s next, prep-school Mr. Potter shown getting bullied into learning the value of a dollar?). Traumatized by his experiences as a child in Lithuania toward the end of World War II, young Lecter (Ulliel) becomes a medical student while dabbling in murder and, eventually, cannibalism while tracking down the marauding war criminals responsible for his sister’s grisly fate. A period drama, war movie, revenge thriller, slasher flick, and (whether intentional or not) campy black comedy all rolled into one…but despite adequate production values, it’s all very rote and tedious, unable to arrive at a consistent tone or establish a visual style that’s not highly derivative. Ulliel makes no effort to resemble Anthony Hopkins’ iconic portrayal of Hannibal the Cannibal, and it’s debatable how canny that decision was. Less debatable is how banal the character becomes in his bloodied hands, a product of victimhood rather than intellectual malevolence—Harris’ script is like a character assassination plot, and the actor finishes the job. An unrated cut released on home video adds about ten minutes of additional and alternate material.

26/100