His name alone is enough to send chills down your spine. His crimes will give you nightmares. His legend is known by all. But now you can learn how it all began, how a small innocent boy became the creature known as Hannibal the Cannibal. He is Hannibal Lecter and this is his beginning.

The back story to one of literature and film’s greatest villains is brought to life in Hannibal Rising, but is the film a main course or simply a snack?

If you read my review of the novel Hannibal Rising you could tell I was less than impressed with Thomas Harris’s Hannibal: The Phantom Menace, it just didn’t have the meat that the other books in the series had and it felt very rushed and un-thought out. The film version of is better than the book, but it still has a few of the flaws that it unfortunately carried over as Harris did the screen play for the film as well.

Let me get to probably the biggest question about this film, “Does Gaspard Ulliel pull off the role of Hannibal?” Well yes and no. Gaspard gets a minus in appearance and physical shape, he really shares no likeness at all to Hopkins and their physical appearances would not meld over the time lapse of the story. There are, however, a few brief moments when a smile, a witty remark or glare makes you see a bit of Hopkins’s Lecter performance. Gaspard does get a huge plus in creepiness and intimidation, the guy plays a very good psycho and during the performance he had the cold calmness of Lecter down to a “T.”

I have no doubt the newcomer will have many more great roles in his career, especially since he has now been introduced to American audiences. The rest of the cast do their jobs well but no one else really stands out, except for Rhys Ifans who plays the immoral Grutas.

As I read the book, the samurai and oriental flair of the story never really clicked for me in Hannibal’s teen years, it is even more out of place in the movie, and it just doesn’t fit watching Hannibal practicing bushido sword play as he learns to adjust to life after the events of his childhood. The thing that makes the character of Hannibal so great, in my opinion, is his resolve, he is unwavering and unrelenting, the movie and Gaspard both capture that as the young Dr. Lecter sets out for vengeance on those that wronged him and his family.

The violence is there but in small flashing sequences, except of course for a scene or two of Hannibal extracting information from less than cooperative victims. It is truly amazing what you can get a man to say if all you have is a horse, a tree and a few feet of rope.

I guess the bottom line on Hannibal Rising is it is a decent flick, not the greatest in the series, but it does fit in there somewhere. Although I still think Hannibal never needed a back story, he was pretty much perfect as is. But the sad truth the more popular something is the more we want of it and the more it becomes watered down.

6 of 10 mushroom and cheek shish kabobs