Forgotten Prequels: Hannibal Rising (2007)

Who demanded this?!? 
Oh right- Dino De Laurentiis.

That's not a lie or an exaggeration- it's the truth.  He didn't want to lose the License and knew that Anthony Hopkins was not up for more Films.  What was the other option then?  A Prequel.

He went to Thomas Harris and said 'Hey, I'm making another Film.  Can you write it?'  He didn't really have a Story in mind.  Dino said 'Well, I'll do it with or without you.'

That's how we got this Prequel, which was written as both a Screenplay and a Book at the same time.  I have the Book btw.  I hope it is worth the 99 cents!

The Film tells the tale of young Hannibal Lecter, which apparently is a thing now.  How did he turn out this way?  To find out, read on...

In 1944, young Hannibal and his family are trying to live happily by avoiding the tail end of the German invasion of Russian territory.

Of course, we need this Film to be available worldwide, so the Nazis (and their imagery) barely factor into the Film.

Unfortunately, the War finds its way to their Castle (our poor Hero's parents own a Castle BTW) and everyone dies, save for Hannibal and his Sister Mischa.

FYI Mischa is a Male Name in this area.  Did they mean Mascha?

A group of Looters take over the House- hiding out from the off-screen Nazis- and things look bad for them.

So, naturally, they jump ahead EIGHT YEARS to see Hannibal as a young man.

Wait- what?!?

Anyhow, he wounds a kid at a Boarding School...which is in their Castle!

He tracks down his Uncle and his Wife, finding only the latter.  She's Japanese, so she trains him in Bushido.
Also she's played by Gong Li.  Do I have to tell you that she's not *actually* Japanese.

This is how they give us this super-ironic shot of him wearing a mask.  Sigh.

He kills a local Butcher, but gets his Step-Aunt to make him an alibi...in the form of dumping the man's head in front of the Police Station. 

That's some family!

In spite of this, we learn that France is a VERY SMALL COUNTRY, since Hannibal ends up meeting THE SAME DETECTIVE at Medical School a year later- entirely by chance.

What luck?!?

Hannibal, it seems, has been repressing his memories of what happened to his Sister in the Intro, so he takes Sodium Pentathol (which he just happened to have seen the Detective use on a Witness) to unlock his memories.

Mischa is dead and everyone was starving, so you can probably guess what happened.

What fun subject matter to discuss, right?!?

His memories intact again, he tracks down the men from that fateful winter (who I guess just left after a while).  In doing so, he also manages to stop at a Border Crossing at a City that is nowhere near any Borders.  Oops.

He catches and kills one guy- the future Night King model (in case that face looks familiar)- to get the info he needs.

He also cuts off his head, since I guess he wants the Inspector to suspect him even more!

He makes a play for the other Cannibals, but he draws too much attention.

The men track down the 'Japanese' Aunt...somehow.

Naturally, she's held captive, since she's both A) the Mentor and B) a Woman.

Hannibal gets on the boat in Paris as it passes under a bridge...which is eerily similar to the ending of Taken about a year later.  Hmm...

Hannibal is confronted by the fact that he may have accidentally been a cannibal too, so he freaks out and kills the remaining bad guy.

Not Japanese Aunt rejects his love as she sees his horrific nature up close, so he fakes his death via boat explosion and leaves the Country.

Nothing of note happens in the remaining 28 years, I guess.  The End.

So, was it worth it?  Was it really?

The Film is...alright.  It's not great.  It's not truly terrible.

The things that would make a Film really terrible- like Bad Acting, Writing, Production Values and the like aren't really here.  There are certainly some questionable choices as far as Writing, but it isn't horrendous.

The Plot plays out oddly with the time jump, the later reveals and just the general flow of it.  Time is also quite vague here in many cases. 
How long is it between the first killing and him going to Paris, for instance?

For better or worse, the violence here is certainly escalated.  It will be good for some of the audience, but certainly alienate another portion.  The fact that so much of the Plot revolves around Cannibalism and Children is another issue, of course.

At its worst, the Film is bleak and grim for being bleak and grim's sake.  At its best, it is allowing a good- sadly now dead- French Actor to show his range.

Speaking of range, the final Ending has a long range, since it- Hannibal confronting the last Cannibal in a far-off Bar after presenting a coin as proof- seems to be an influence for 2010's X-Men: First Class.

Next up, a break from this kind of stuff.  How about some '80s Sci-Fi?  Stay tuned...