Hannibal Rising
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: February 9, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
35
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
12
Negative:
14
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
Hannibal Rising isn't a classic, but it's entertaining and a surprisingly fitting addition to the franchise. Read full review
63
PremiereJenni Miller
The story's beginning is in a rush to get to the the killings, which get more and more disgusting. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
This strikes me as the final nail in the franchise's coffin. I can't name an actor who could have made young Lecter as interesting as the older one, but Ulliel does not come close. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
It's a handsomely mounted but poky thriller undone by a fatally miscast lead. Read full review
60
Film ThreatMark Bell
This is essentially a by-the-numbers revenge film with some attempts at deeper characterization. The difference between this film and, say, "Batman Begins" is that Bruce Wayne, upon finding the tormentors of his youth, never tried to kill and eat them. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's a handsome film, but the pace is continually gummy and the set-ups stiff and artificial. Most crucially, nothing in it vanquishes the sensation that we're being sold something superfluous -- like a service contract for a carton of eggs. Read full review
50
VarietyDennis Harvey
This upmarket slasher is a well-produced but slow-moving thriller that never quite roars to life. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Most of the movie makes too much sense and is no fun at Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
What Hannibal Rising is, mostly, is a hoot. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJim Ridley
This comically fastidious telling of the Hannibal Lecter origin story completes the extreme makeover of grindhouse fare that "The Silence of the Lambs" started 15 years ago. Meaning: Respectable audiences who wouldn't be caught dead at a (sniff!) horror movie still want severed heads; they just want the bloody meal served on Royal Dalton china. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Thomas Harris adapted his own bestseller and Peter Webber, who previously directed "Girl with a Pearl Earring," had the unenviable task of trying to give this glop, which is too gruesome to be campy, a high gloss. It should be called Man With a Severed Head. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
Director Peter Webber can't do much about what's missing from the story: a soul or a sense of purpose. Read full review
40
EmpireKim Newman
Gong Li is welcome as Hannibal's Japanese aunt-in-law/mentor, Gaspard Ulliel isn't a bad young Lecter and Webber's direction is intermittently classy -- but this is a footnote rather than a film. Read full review
40
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The movie streamlines much of Harris's book. It's a shame, because it results in the movie's fundamental flaw -- the one-dimensionality of Hannibal. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Ulliel, the meek missing soldier in "A Very Long Engagement," makes such a tedious Lecter that this quickly becomes a chore, though Dominic West ("The Wire") is good as a French detective on the madman's trail. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Hannibal Rising is basically a Steven Seagal vigilante movie with a hero who eats the people he kills. At least it's ecofriendly. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
For better and worse, the movie is more attractive and competently assembled than its schlock peers. That's refreshing, but it hardly excuses the appalling lack of suspense, intermittent tastelessness, or shockingly low camp quotient. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Errors in logic will delight the attentive. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleJosh Rosenblatt
Who would have thought mass murder and cannibalism could be so dull? Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesSam Adams
Bad as Harris' Hannibal Rising screenplay (his first) is, at least it's an improvement on his dreadful book, streamlining its convoluted action and discarding large chunks of unspeakable dialogue. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
This Hannibal is a stick-in-the-mud altogether lacking in the wit, gourmet appetites and romantic flair required of any surrogate for Sir Anthony Hopkins. By the end of two full hours, it's only Harris' head you long to see on a plate. Read full review
25
Chicago TribunePhil Vettel
A sort-of combination of "Lambs," "Batman Begins" and "The Joy of Cooking," Hannibal Rising ostensibly dramatizes the atrocities that turned Hannibal Lecter from loving child to serial killer. But this film is larded up with so many food references that I'm undecided whether this story belongs in a film compendium or a recipe file. Read full review
25
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The funniest movie of the year - a true laugh riot. Viewers will be holding their sides to contain the laughter. Forget Borat - if you're looking for something hilarious, this is the movie to see. What's that? It's not supposed to be a comedy. Oops. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Not just a bad film, Hannibal Rising is downright dull, which is a far worse crime. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle Smith
Dull and dreary prequel. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
For the first time in the film series, Harris wrote the screenplay himself, which means the movie is practically identical to the book. In other words, they both stink. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Not quite repellent enough to avoid tedium, Hannibal Rising is both too familiar in portraying Hannibal as a Dracula-like aristocrat monster, and crud in its exploitation of wartime atrocities. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Hannibal Rising reduces this great creature of the pop imagination to a Eurotrash Boy Scout throwing a homicidal snit fit. Read full review
20
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
It's all quite a mess, with awkward performances, worse dialogue and a painfully protracted running time conspiring against any chance of enjoyment, even in a so-bad-it's-good guilty pleasure way. Read full review
10
The New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis
Silly, slack and unforgivably tedious, Thomas Harris's screenplay is padded with interminable flashbacks and a bombastic score that telegraphs every emotion Hannibal represses. And there are a lot of them. Read full review
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