by Spencer Hawken

Created on: May 27, 2007

During the Second World War the Lector family are forced to flee their luxurious castle before the Nazi forces arrive. Having fled to the woods to a secluded retreat the Lector's get a few short moments to celebrate their good fortune in escaping safely. But this is short lived luck as a Russian tank stumbles upon their home and in a fight between the tank and a stream of fighter planes most of the Lector family are wiped out. The only two that remain are young Hannibal and his baby sister Mischa.

Hannibal Rising tells the story of how Hannibal changed from a young innocent child, to a bitter and hate filled serial killer. At last the story is finally complete.

I met Hannibal Rising with a degree of wariness; I find the Hannibal movies to be hit and miss. The first movie Manhunter (Later remade as Red Dragon) was excellent, incredibly stylish and at times very disturbing. Silence Of The Lambs stood out against all the serial killer movie that went before it as a work of art. Hannibal was acceptable, but lacking in areas and at places overlong. And personally I found Red Dragon a pointless abomination of a movie, a pretty much near exact remake of Manhunter with in some ways a second rate cast. Hannibal Rising took a fair whack of abuse when it was released with more people hating it than not.

I found that the start of Hannibal Rising was quite a laborious chore, while I slightly familiar with the labors some movies turn to in trying to create a bigger picture; my other half lost interest 35 minutes in and took to reading a book exclaiming in her just so voice "This is rubbish!" So my first point to make on Hannibal Rising is that the start needs some attention, but its worth sticking with.

As Hannibal gets older he is in search of revenge for something that occurred in the house in the woods. This revenge is inspired by abuse his Japanese Aunt receives from a local butcher in a market. It's at this point that the movie swiftly shifts from first to forth gear. Gaspard Ulliel who plays Hannibal and Li Gong who plays his Aunt Lady Murasaki Shikibu, spring into action in an almost "Crouching Tiger" manner its an incredibly well choreographed fight scene the borders along the lines of being "Amazing". The fight ends abruptly when the Gendarme arrive, but for Hannibal; this is a battle that is far from over and later tracks down the butcher and takes him out of the equation.

Again you get a secondary piece of monotony for about 15 minutes as Hannibal and his Aunt are

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