Ranking the Franchise - Hannibal Lecter

Hannibal Lecter is one of the most iconic and scary characters in cinema history. His charming way of conversing hides his psychotic, manipulative and violent nature. His character has a series dedicated to him, but there are five movies about Hannibal Lecter. And I decided to rank these films.
 

5. Hannibal Rising (2007)
Young Hannibal Lecter grows up in a privileged environment. In the family castle in Lithuania, he studies medicine. Then WWII breaks out, his parents and sister are murdered, and, heavily traumatized, he forges his first vengeful murder plans. “Hannibal Rising” wants to show us how he became the man remembers for his charm and eloquence, cultural savvy unmatched psychology, explosiveness and his danger. Let’s put it this way, Hannibal deserved a much better prequel.
 

4. Hannibal (2001)
In this sequel, we meet Hannibal Lecter in Florence where he feeds on art, culture and passerby. FBI agent Clarice Starling (this time played by Julianne Moore) is trying to catch him. This movie never met up with its expectations and wasn’t even close to its original. Julianne Moore replaced Jodie Foster as Starling, because Foster didn’t want to disavow the original character. And she was right, Foster was way better in her role and Moore’s version of Starling is just another detective.
 

3. Red Dragon (2002)
Aonce again Sir Anthony Hopkins takes on the role of one of the world’s most notorious and beloved movie killers. It chronologically comes before “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Hannibal”. In other words, we see the psychiatrist in the days when he was still on the loose but did acquire the nickname Hannibal the Cannibal. His help is enlisted in an FBI investigation into a serial killer called the “Tooth Fairy”. Stylishly shot, creepy and less hysterical than “Hannibal”.
 

2. Manhunter (1986)
“Manhunter” tells the same story as “Red Dragon, but was release in the late eighties. It was actually the first movie made about Hannibal Lecter. Where FBI agent Will Graham was portrayed by Edward Norton in “Red Dragon” in this early film William Petersen took on the role. And Brian Cox plays the psychotic Dr. Lecter. I believe many people have never seen this film and it’s highly overlooked and underrated in my opinion.
 

1. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Rookie FBI agent Clarice Starling is tasked with unblocking a stalled investigation into a serial killer. To do so, she must interrogate another serial killer in prison, Hannibal Lecter. This movie made him the iconic villain he is and is the best one in the franchise.
 

50 Books Challenge 2013 - # 35: Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris (Hannibal Lecter # 4)

Title: Hannibal Rising(Hannibal Lecter # 4)
Author: Thomas Harris
Story: Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck. He seems utterly alone, but he has brought his demons with him. Hannibal’s uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France, where Hannibal will live with his uncle and his uncle’s beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki. Lady Murasaki helps Hannibal to heal. With her help he flourishes, becoming the youngest person ever admitted to medical school in France. But Hannibal’s demons visit him and torment him. When he is old enough, he visits them in turn. He discovers he has gifts beyond the academic, and in that epiphany, Hannibal Lecter becomes death’s prodigy
Start: september 28th 2013
End: september 30th 2013
Comment: This books completes the circle, the final book in the Hannibal Lecter series. And it's nothing like the other three. The book opens during Hitler's 'Blitzkrieg' operation during World War II, when Axis troops spread across Europe and placed the majority of it under Nazi control. The Lecter family, which consists of the cultured Count and Countess as well as their talented son Hannibal and his little sister, Mischa, flees to their cabin in the woods of Poland to escape from the invading SS. The rest of the book deals with Hannibal as a disturbed teenager trying to deal with the pain over the loss with his sister when he is taken in by his uncle Robert and his dazzling wife, Lady Muraski, and subsequently his life as a young medical student in Paris, where he finally begins planning his revenge on the fiends who murdered his sister. The character of Hannibal still retains his wit and remains fascinating, but is a little more reckless and humane than his older self, though he's still just as delightfully brilliant as ever. You get to know Hannibal Lecter more, but some questions about him will remain unanswered. Maybe that makes Lecter more mysterious, but I really wanted to get the answers. Especially because it's the last book. But at the end you are left with a greater sense of who Hannibal Lecter is.
Rating: 3,5/ 5