Frank's Review:
I'm sorry to say that
I was rather disappointed. It's not a bad movie, but it's just kind of
bland.
I've read the novel 3 times. It's one of my all-time favorite books,
and
the movie follows it pretty well. However, it just couldn't really
keep my
attention. It might be mainly because I just wanted to punch Edward
Norton.
This is, by far, his worst performance. Ever.
Now onto the good stuff. The rest of the cast is really good,
especially
Ralph Fiennes as Francis Dolarhyde and Emily Watson as Reba. They had
pretty good chemistry and this is what makes the movie somewhat
interesting.
Harvey Keitel is basically Harvey Keitel, and Philip Seymour Hoffman
comes
across as pretty self-centered and sleazy. His character is pretty
true to
the novel. As for Keitel, I wished that they had re-cast Scott Glenn
in the
role. He is truly missed.
And of course, the main reason that I've been wanting to see this movie
for
so long is to see Anthony Hopkins take a bite (sorry, I just couldn't
help
myself) out of the best novel in the Lecter trilogy. He was everything
I
expected, however his performance was bogged down by Norton's awful
performance. I just can't get over how much I hated Norton in this
role.
Hopkins' Lecter performance has gotten a bit routine, but it's still
the
Hannibal that we've all come to love. He plays him slightly
differently
here. He plays him a little more intense and angrier than he played
him in
the previous movies. You can tell that he hates Norton almost as much
as I
do ;)
Perhaps the most thrilling aspect of the movie was being able to see
Anthony
Heald return to the role of Dr. Chilton. He plays him basically the
same as
he did in "Silence", but he does look noticibly older than he did in
"Silence", and that kind of distracted me knowing that it is a prequel.
You
can notice that he is older much more than you can with Hopkins.
However,
he's still the same dirty bastard that he was in "Silence".
Let me say this: I hated Danny Elfman's score. It is without a doubt
the
worst score of the three movies. It sounded as if he was writing for a
Tim
Burton movie. I expected to see Edward Scissorhands or Beetlejuice pop
out
as I was listening to his score. He steals from almost everything he
has
written. It is ROUTINE Danny Elfman.
Now for Brett Ratner. This is probably the best movie that he's made,
and
if you've seen his other work that's not saying much. However, he did
a
fairly decent job with "Red Dragon". It could have been worse. Much
worse.
He does a decent job of setting up the suspense, but about half way
through, it begins to fizzle. However, I am pleased to say that the
end was
everything I was expecting and more. It ends almost exactly like the
book,
and everyone in the audience I saw it with jumped and screamed and
threw
their popcorn all over the theater. I, of course (unlike a majority of
the
audience), knew it was coming, but it was definately the redeeming
factor of
an otherwise boring movie.
So a little recap: Edward Norton should be shot for the way he
portrayed
Will Graham. Ralph Fiennes and Emily Watson are both excellent and
have
great chemistry. Harvey Keitel plays himself and Scott Glenn is sorely
missed. Philip Seymour Hoffman is effective as Lounds. Anthony Hopkins
plays Hannibal just like always. Anthony Heald is too old looking for
a
prequel but still plays the character perfectly. Danny Elfman's score
sucks. And Brett Ratner does a decent job with what he's given.
I almost forgot to mention Ted Tally's script. As I'm sure everyone is
aware, it opens with Hannibal being caught by Graham. It's one of the
best
parts of the movie, so I'm not going to give much away here. The rest
of
the movie is almost word-for-word from the book. One of the aspects
that I
liked the most about it is that it explores Dolarhyde's past. The lady
who
plays Grandma Dolarhyde is just vicious. Tally's script doesn't have a
lot
of the great lines that his "Silence" script had, but it's still pretty
decent.
My rating: **1/2 out of ****