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Hannibal Rising: The Unthrilling Thriller

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By: DThompson | in: Books, Movies |

Thomas Harris had a good thing going in Hannibal Lecter. He must have known it, given the bad doctor’s increasing presence in Harris’ books. From supporting role in Red Dragon to co-star in Silence of the Lambs to title role in Hannibal, Hannibal Lecter was a rising star.

Hannibal Rising

And, his story was great. Well, great until Thomas Harris lost his mind and had FBI Agent Clarice Starling join Lecter in cannibalistic madness. Talk about a whopper of a bad idea! Agent Starling, as Harris described her, was not a person exactly lacking in strength and character. It would never truly be believable that Hannibal could get her to join him in a world of perverse monstrosity. As the story of Hannibal was as much the story of doughty Clarice, perhaps Harris thought it only natural that they pair up. More likely he had a sequel planned where she reasserted herself and broke free of Hannibal’s evil spell. I guess that would work, espescially if these were a series of Harlequin romance novels. But, they’re not.
Then came Ridley Scott’s movie with a wholly different ending, of which Harris commented, “I wish I’d thought of that.” Yeah Tom, we all wish you had. The movies and the books had diverged and the problem for our author now was how to write more Hannibal stories and still get the requisite bank account fattening movie sale. The answer is Hannibal Rising, an unnecessary and mostly uninteresting prequel cum mini-biography of the world’s favorite super hero serial killer.
The first hundred or so pages of the book detail super-brainy young Hannibal’s war time experiences. Through encounters replete with death, mayhem and, yes, cannibalism. Hannibal himself remains something of a cipher. How he comes to his arctic detachment remains unexplored.
Interest rises a bit when Hannibal turns fifteen or so and starts hunting down the thugs who murdered his family. Oddly, the main act of cannibalism is when said thugs cook and eat (and feed to the unwitting Hannibal) his baby sister, Mischa. Now this bugs Hannibal quite a bit, as you might imagine. You might even go so far as to wonder to yourself why it is that Hannibal would go on a career in an activity that could only serve as a reminder of a painfully grotesque moment in his life. In fact, as Hannibal only kills (and eats the cheeks of) the moralless criminal swine who murdered his family there’s really no indication of why he became a serial killer at all. And, why in God’s name would you write this book if not to explain the principle question of Doctor Hannibal Lecter’s life? Unless Harris has a second prequel planned, something like Hannibal Ascendant. Ugh.

Hannibal Rising

Of course, Hollywood can be johnny-on-the-spot if it thinks it has a hot property and in the case of this new Hannibal book they surely felt they had a sizzler. The movie was released mere months after the novel complete with a sweet eye-candy trailer. I scrunched into the smallest theater in the mega-plex with preview images swooping about in my head, hoping improvements had been made. I prayed that the book’s flaws would be left behind. Then, the credits came up and my feeble wishes were forever crushed as I read the words “Screenplay by Thomas Harris”. In actuality, Hannibal Rising (the movie) is one of the truest adaptations of a book you will ever see, which, in this case is not exactly a good thing. It suffers all the flaws of the book, every single one. Where a thriller should have twists and turns this movie is entirely linear with never a moment of surprise. It gives no insight on the Hannibal character who functions, as in the book, like a kind of revenge-driven murder-besotted insanely gifted version of Batman without the funny suit. As in the book, Clarice Starling is greatly missed. An attempt is made to substitute Hannibal’s Aunt, Lady Murasaki, but she’s nowhere near strong enough to provide a decent foil to Hannibal’s preternatural villainy.

Hannibal Rising

Director Peter Webber does do a better job portraying this evil than the book, you can see the serial-killer-to-be occasionally peek out through the largely uninspired cinematography and decadent Euro trash set design. The acting runs the gamut from wooden to just dull with only Gospard Ulliel’s portrayal of Hannibal having any real spark to it. Yet, the movie’s most annoying aspect is its nonsensical references to Lecter’s future. A saurai warrior mask that Hannibal likes is designed to echo the mask he will later wear in Silence of the Lambs. However, since one is a mask Lecter likes and the other is a mask he is made to wear the fact that they look anything alike is merely coincidence and tells us nothing about the character. There’s also a musical reference to the soundtrack from Coppola’s Dracula as Hannibal revisits his ancestral home Castle Lecter that I’m sure is not accidental.
I’m a fan of Thomas Harris, I love his writing and I thought Red Dragon, filmed as Manhunter, and Silence of the Lambs, both book and movie were all great. Heck I even liked Hannibal, up to the last twenty pages. So it is with great unhappiness that I report that Hannibal Rising, a thriller uniquely devoid of thrills, is a story best avoided on page and screen. And if they have an audio book out you’d best steer clear of that as well.


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Posted on February 25, 2007

Comments

2 Responses to “Hannibal Rising: The Unthrilling Thriller”

  1. www.blogmemes.net on February 25th, 2007 5:44 pm

    Hannibal Rising: The difference between the book and movie

    Liked what you just read here ? Vote for it on Blogmemes ! Thomas Harris had a good thing going in Hannibal Lecter. He must have known it, given the bad doctor’s increasing presence in Harris’ books. From supporting role in Red Dragon to co-star in…


  2. Natalia on July 16th, 2007 6:19 pm

    This review totally gives a biased opinion. I’m a true Thomas Harris fan and i have to say that all his books are amazing, including the duo of Dr.Lecter and Clarice. Even Hannibal Rising is a great book, the movies havent been such great adaptations with the exception of Hannibal Rising because of the storyboard by Thomas Harris.
    Please disregard a extremely biased blog such as this one and create your own opinion by reading Harris’ novels and watching the films.


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