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Summary:
The story of Hannibal Lecter as a young'n, and the reason he became a "monster".

Review:
Hilarious! While we see the transformation from an innocent boy into the "monster" that becomes Hannibal the Cannibal, we ALSO get to see an entirely different kind of transformation. With Manhunter and Silence of the Lambs, Lecter is presented as a mysterious genius who exhudes freakish superiority. Hannibal did a great job de-mystifying the the fear of Hannibal's genius. They turned him into a wiscracking horror icon who seems to be everywhere at once, and is two steps ahead of each character in a way that only screenplays can allow... but Hannibal Rising turns Hannibal into a comedy routine, making Hannibal seem like a legendary storytelling opus.
Couldn't say what's happened to Thomas Harris as a writer since the conception of his engrossing first two novels, but it probably has something to do with dollar signs. Some might call it "cashing in".

None of the three leads are properly cast for their roles. Gong Li is a mega-huge Chinese actress, which confused me when Hannibal first caught sight of her shrine with the Japanese warrior. Then I realized - she has once again been cast as a Japanese person (before this, there was Memoirs of a Geisha), and I have to wonder how many beautiful and just as talented (or moreso) actresses auditioned for this role, and are ACTUALLY Japanese! What the hell?!
Gaspard Ulliel is a delight to watch, but always for the wrong reasons. He chews up each scene with comical zeal, possessing an unending half-smile that tries so hard to be foreboding, but is merely comedic camp. This is not Anthony Hopkins, with HIS half-smile that really DOES portray a scary undertone as it did in Silence of the Lambs. Ulliel is hideous in looks and performance, but not in a way that works for the movie. You can't blame him entirely for biting the big one, since the screenplay and direction can only take you so far. In this case, he was doomed before even being cast.

Rising is a half-assed, moronic tale of Lecter as a very young boy in WWII watching over his sister after a freak attack kills his parents. Then, some asshole soldiers come in and eat his sister in order to survive. Cut to ten years later - with unending flashbacks and quick-cuts to him as an 8 year old - where he never speaks and goes on a quest to hunt down those that ate his sister. That's all there is to the story, really.
It seems Harris has tried to show Lecter's worldly knowledge with a ridiculous storyline of Lecter's unrelated aunt being Japanese and teaching him kenpo and the ways of Asian culture and scented oils. At the same time there's a cheap romance that only works if you can believe a smart and capable woman would love a man that cuts heads off asshole jerks and sends them to her on a platter. Literally; there's no metaphor with that phrase.
One thing you can't claim this movie is is subtle. Domonic West comes onscreen with an accent and the same drive and determination as McNulty from The Wire. What doesn't come WITH that determination is the same solid writing and involving mystery that McNulty has to deal with, so West is left mentioning numerous times how Hannibal was a young boy, but he died that day and became something else entirely - dramatic pause - a monster.
Rising plods its inevitable course from open to close with the occassional somewhat gruesome murder. Each time he tortures one of the soldiers that ate his sister in order to find the next, I laugh and laugh. It's so damned cheesy. I love his first kill, when blood explodes onto his face. He just HAS to touch the blood with a gloved hand and... wait for it... lick the blood. Ohhhhhh, ahhhh... his first taste!

When I wasn't finding sick humor during the retarded and exagerrated violence (love the barbaric consumption of the bird in the beginning; HAHAHAHA!), I was getting plenty of laughs from the badly written dialogue. For example, Gong Li tells Hannibal in a bad English accent "Your memories are a knife... it cu(r)ts you." I added the "r" because I think she said "Cut" but the accent added an extra letter. It's either that, or she said "Can hurt you" which is even funnier than the line I used! I had almost as much trouble understanding Li as I did when she was grossly miscast in Miami Vice. I said almost because I uderstood her more this time around than last time.

I would give Hannibal Rising an "F", but I must admit it worked when it came to pure cheese. I gave up hope from about the ten minute mark (eating the bird) and realized I was in for something that will never reach the proportions of the story's origins (Red Dragon and Lambs). This is about the origin of Hannibal, but it's not a very original story. I found it somewhat entertaining because of the campiness of it, which means that it is watchable if you're in the mood for a shitty horror/thriller.

GRADE: D+

Reviewed 2/11/07