"Hannibal Rising" a "Movie" that "Sucks"

What's the saying? A horse made by a committee is a camel. This is that camel's shit that landed on the sandwich in front of someone at that meeting's plate which was then cannibalized by another, more troubled sandwich who came up with a movie just before he was eaten alive.

Unfortunately, someone heard his dying words. So, 'Hannibal Rising' is a so-called movie with people acting like there's danger, someone trying to stop or kill the dangerous, someone falling in love with the much younger danger. etc.

Is it sad that this "Movie" sucks all the life out of going to a movie? Yes.

But, that's not why we're here. We complain about the DP, the lighting, framing and movement choices that either make sense or don't. Here, Ben Davis is operating as if he was also made by a sandwich at that fateful meeting.

He pulls out all the 'shots' in his minimal, stolen, unimaginative arsenal. And he does it for no reason.  Ben shot
'The Girl With the Pearl Earring' - so, maybe he knows what he's doing or perhaps he's trying to cover up the shit of the story by putting up shit in the frame. Well, my friends, we all know that only makes a shit sandwich.
And a shit sandwich by committee is 'Hannibal Rising'.

He starts with a bleach bypass look for the better part of the first act. Followed by serious color treatment in post to crush the blacks, and make the dimmer scenes look more contrasty.  And the result is so passe. No one should be doing bleach bypass unless there's a very good reason. If it's almost a comment on bleach bypass. Otherwise, you're just eating the same sandwich.

He throws in a couple of early handheld shots in the opening sequence in the midst of being indecisive about the look of the scene. Well, Ben, it doesn't work.  It's distracting with a medium lens close-up. It's too jittery. If you need to do the Private Ryan thing for some reason, find a better one than the escape sequence.  it's been done, it's not reflective. come up with something else.

That's the real problem of the movie as a whole. It's a "Movie."  It has Nazi's as bad guys, then Russian emigres as bad guys, and there's a French detective serving justice and all that's good - he knows the smell of clove oil, he lost loved ones in the war... There's a Japanese aunt who escorts dear Hannibal through his "movie" kung fu  training sequence. 

The whole genre of war movies is taken as the back drop and the cover-up for every plot hole. There are too many to list. One of my favorite is when Hannibal shows up at the restaurant of one of the bad guys and , to prove that he hasn't killed his daughter, (thereby saving the cat) He dials the man's number and has him talk to his wife....

My Lord, what a terrible waste of time. At least every one got paid..