lol i eet u
So I went to see Hannibal Rising tonight. I'd just watched Silence of the Lambs a few nights ago, and I have to say, I found the idea of a young, smoking-hot Lecter very appealing. Love that dimple, baby. What's not to love about a cannibal, anyway?
My non-spoiler reaction to the movie is that it was okay, but there were a lot of things conspiring against it to make it...not okay. I was satisfied leaving the theatre but not thrilled. Despite the commercial hype it didn't strike me as terribly gorey (am I desensitized?). Not as bad as some of the horror that's come out lately, for sure. Half-visible cannibalism isn't quite as bad as blind cave men chewing out throats, or rusty barbed wire rape, I'm sorry to say.
For a man that's supposed to be pure evil, I was expecting a little more creativity, and less sympathy, really. Still better than Hannibal, though. Oh, and Gaspard is totally hot. I'd cannibalize him, if you know what I mean. >3
First of all, what the fuck was up with "Lady Murasaki"??? How can author can think, "Hey, I need a Japanese name for a woman - I'll pick one of of the most famous Japanese women of all time! MY CREATIVITY KNOWS NO BOUNDS." Seriously, that pissed me off every time she was on screen. And considering her only standing as an upper class citizen in France was her attachment to her husband, I would have thought she'd continue to go as Mrs. French-Dude or The Widow SomethingOrOther. A lot of the Japanese influence in the movie felt forced (though his Hannibal Mask made me Eee a little).
I think the main failing of the film is that it tries to assign a reason to Hannibal being a "monster". Some of the reviews I've read describe it as "pop psycology" and that's what it felt like. He saw his sister get eaten = he becomes a cannibal. It's contradictory, him becomming what he initially wanted revenge against, and the fact that this isn't addressed until the very end of the film felt off to me. It's like they supplied an excuse instead of a causation, if that makes sense. I can think of more interesting reasons to turn to human burger.
That, added to the fact that the movie is about revenge more than anything, really prevents Hannibal from appearing downright evil. The men he kills in the movie are so much more despicable than him (they even got Portman from Doom in there, yay!!) each murder is almost justified. And since most of the murder mechanics aren't even all that bizarre or cruel - Portman's was probably the worst, and even that showed us very little - it felt like you were rooting for Hannibal rather than being disgusted by him. Like they were counting on the fact that the audience would be horrified by him, simply by the fact that he ate a few bits of people.
But you never really get to see him eat any of his victims. It's all implied or shown at a distance. No skillful preparation, no dinner with wine. And only one face-biting scene which was pretty much the same as the one from Silence of the Lambs. Maybe I'm a horrible monster, but "he's a cannibal" is not enough to scare me, not since watching the first movie. When the police inspector who used to prosecute Nazi war criminals called him a monster I nearly laughed out loud. Really? A bunch of sociopathic Nazis who tortue people for fun aren't as bad as the hottie teenager who wants revenge on the men who killed someone he loved? Revenge for a murdered girl doesn't make you a monster, it makes you...half of Hollywood's heroes.
It's only scary if Hannibal kills INNOCENT people. The scariest part of the entire movie was Hannibal calling the little girl to him in the restaurant, because for a moment the movie had me believing that he could easily kill and eat her. Now THAT is creepy. Not spilling a murdering creep into a dunk tank to drown. Borrrrrrrring.
Too many villains these days share the same problem - their creators like them too much, and therefore they hold back at making the character as diabolical as they could be. They want you to feel SORRY for the villain and sympathize. That's not always a bad thing, but we're talking about Hannibal-fucking-Lecter, here. "Society made him evil" is played out, man. Just let him be bad.
They even made a point in the orphanage parts to make sure we knew Lecter only hurt the bullies. Fuck, let him hurt everyone! He's gonna go on to kill hundreds of people over the next 30 years or so. I think that negates any charity he might have had as Oliver.
It's hard to stay ahead of horror movie gore these days, I'm sure. Moves like The Hills Have Eyes and Hostel (both of which are coming out with sequels this spring, actually) set the bar pretty high for how disturbing and gore-covered a movie can be. Lecter has always been more about the psychological than the meat, sure. But you can't base the movie on the audience being shocked by cannibalism itself and not deliver the goods, so to speak. There should have been more of Lecter messing with people, or more blood, that's what it comes down to (IMHO). There's just nothing in the movie all that scary or shocking.
....That was a lot of talk! :O But I love Silence of the Lambs and villains in general, and I really wanted this movie to be...better. As I told my brother, had he been more like Matt Engarde, who he resembles so well, he might have delivered more. Oh well.
He's still smoking hot, at least. Rawwwrrrr. *pinches his dimple*
My non-spoiler reaction to the movie is that it was okay, but there were a lot of things conspiring against it to make it...not okay. I was satisfied leaving the theatre but not thrilled. Despite the commercial hype it didn't strike me as terribly gorey (am I desensitized?). Not as bad as some of the horror that's come out lately, for sure. Half-visible cannibalism isn't quite as bad as blind cave men chewing out throats, or rusty barbed wire rape, I'm sorry to say.
For a man that's supposed to be pure evil, I was expecting a little more creativity, and less sympathy, really. Still better than Hannibal, though. Oh, and Gaspard is totally hot. I'd cannibalize him, if you know what I mean. >3
First of all, what the fuck was up with "Lady Murasaki"??? How can author can think, "Hey, I need a Japanese name for a woman - I'll pick one of of the most famous Japanese women of all time! MY CREATIVITY KNOWS NO BOUNDS." Seriously, that pissed me off every time she was on screen. And considering her only standing as an upper class citizen in France was her attachment to her husband, I would have thought she'd continue to go as Mrs. French-Dude or The Widow SomethingOrOther. A lot of the Japanese influence in the movie felt forced (though his Hannibal Mask made me Eee a little).
I think the main failing of the film is that it tries to assign a reason to Hannibal being a "monster". Some of the reviews I've read describe it as "pop psycology" and that's what it felt like. He saw his sister get eaten = he becomes a cannibal. It's contradictory, him becomming what he initially wanted revenge against, and the fact that this isn't addressed until the very end of the film felt off to me. It's like they supplied an excuse instead of a causation, if that makes sense. I can think of more interesting reasons to turn to human burger.
That, added to the fact that the movie is about revenge more than anything, really prevents Hannibal from appearing downright evil. The men he kills in the movie are so much more despicable than him (they even got Portman from Doom in there, yay!!) each murder is almost justified. And since most of the murder mechanics aren't even all that bizarre or cruel - Portman's was probably the worst, and even that showed us very little - it felt like you were rooting for Hannibal rather than being disgusted by him. Like they were counting on the fact that the audience would be horrified by him, simply by the fact that he ate a few bits of people.
But you never really get to see him eat any of his victims. It's all implied or shown at a distance. No skillful preparation, no dinner with wine. And only one face-biting scene which was pretty much the same as the one from Silence of the Lambs. Maybe I'm a horrible monster, but "he's a cannibal" is not enough to scare me, not since watching the first movie. When the police inspector who used to prosecute Nazi war criminals called him a monster I nearly laughed out loud. Really? A bunch of sociopathic Nazis who tortue people for fun aren't as bad as the hottie teenager who wants revenge on the men who killed someone he loved? Revenge for a murdered girl doesn't make you a monster, it makes you...half of Hollywood's heroes.
It's only scary if Hannibal kills INNOCENT people. The scariest part of the entire movie was Hannibal calling the little girl to him in the restaurant, because for a moment the movie had me believing that he could easily kill and eat her. Now THAT is creepy. Not spilling a murdering creep into a dunk tank to drown. Borrrrrrrring.
Too many villains these days share the same problem - their creators like them too much, and therefore they hold back at making the character as diabolical as they could be. They want you to feel SORRY for the villain and sympathize. That's not always a bad thing, but we're talking about Hannibal-fucking-Lecter, here. "Society made him evil" is played out, man. Just let him be bad.
They even made a point in the orphanage parts to make sure we knew Lecter only hurt the bullies. Fuck, let him hurt everyone! He's gonna go on to kill hundreds of people over the next 30 years or so. I think that negates any charity he might have had as Oliver.
It's hard to stay ahead of horror movie gore these days, I'm sure. Moves like The Hills Have Eyes and Hostel (both of which are coming out with sequels this spring, actually) set the bar pretty high for how disturbing and gore-covered a movie can be. Lecter has always been more about the psychological than the meat, sure. But you can't base the movie on the audience being shocked by cannibalism itself and not deliver the goods, so to speak. There should have been more of Lecter messing with people, or more blood, that's what it comes down to (IMHO). There's just nothing in the movie all that scary or shocking.
....That was a lot of talk! :O But I love Silence of the Lambs and villains in general, and I really wanted this movie to be...better. As I told my brother, had he been more like Matt Engarde, who he resembles so well, he might have delivered more. Oh well.
He's still smoking hot, at least. Rawwwrrrr. *pinches his dimple*