The remainder of the movie is spent watching Hannibal systematically, one-by-one, track down the perpetrators of the original crime: They ate her, so I shall eat them. Dominic West ("The Wire"), as French police inspector Pascal Popil, is also on the hunt for the criminals to bring them to justice, but part of us wants Hannibal to get to them first.

"Rising" is nicely made, its rich colours emphasizing the atmosphere of decadence and waste, but it's not especially dramatic. Director Peter Webber, who also made “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” brings the same stylish visual style to Hannibal Rising. But this Dr. Lecter offers us nothing new in the way of lethal ingenuity. Gone is the wit, the playfulness, even the masterful, innovative sense of execution.

With Rising, novelist and screenwriter Thomas Harris is merely whoring himself to the pop-horror market with a younger, male model man-eater. Who would have thought mass murder and cannibalism could be so damn lifeless? - B.J.