Hannibal Rising (2007)

Director: Peter Webber

Cast: Aaran Thomas as Hannibal 8yrs, Gaspard Ulliel as Hannibal Lecter, Li Gong as Lady Murasaki (as Gong Li), Helena-Lia Tachovská as Mischa Lecter, Richard Leaf as Father Lecter, Dominic West as Inspector Popil, Rhys Ifans as Vladis Grutas, Michele Wade as Nanny, Richard Brake as Enrikas Dortlich, Martin Hub as Lothar, Ingeborga Dapkunaite as Mother Lecter, Kevin McKidd as Petras Kolnas, Joerg Stadler as Berndt, Stephen Walters as Zigmas Milko, Ivan Marevich as Bronys Grentz

There is a law that states that with every sequel to a film that is
made, the quality of the sequel will deteriorate exponentially. This
law seems to apply embarrassingly well to Hannibal Rising (HR).

Where Silense of The Lambs had a tremendous build up of suspense, HR is
completely flat, plodding and repetitive. Furthermore, since it is a
prequel, we already know that young Hannibal will survive his childhood
unharmed, sophisticated and crafted in the art of human cuisine. So in
every scene where he is in danger, one can just slide back in his chair
waiting for the next pointless scene.

Where we had compelling characters in SoTL, HR gives us cardboard
cutouts. And although we can see that Gaspard Ulliel studied the
performance of Hopkins, his portrayal of Hannibal is just a
embarrassing two-dimensional caricature. Amazing btw, that a tall,
long-faced man can become a small, round-faced man in his later years.
Talk about a complete miscast.

The story of HR is as far as I'm concerned plain bull, boring,
unoriginal and it ruins the myth of Lector. Wooden dialog is not known
to help mediocre stories but the producers must have thought otherwise.
Actually, the whole script is plot driven which means it only reflects
the content of the scenes while lacking any depth. Too bad there wasn't
much of a plot to begin with.

Didn't we already have a prequel to the original classic and wasn't
this movie in fact the first to be released? I strongly recommend
skipping this movie because all you'll see is another rehash of
something already rehashed to death. And even standing on it's own, it
is just a very,very poor movie in frankly every aspect.

Alas poor Frenchise, I knew it Horatio...