Red Dragon (2002)

Title: Red Dragon

Series: Hannibal

Based on the Book: Red Dragon

Written By: Thomas Harris

Director: Brett Ratner

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, and Ralph Fiennes

Rated: R

Released: 2002

Personal Rating: 5/5

Oscars: N/A

Plot: A retired FBI agent with psychological gifts is assigned to help track down "The Tooth Fairy", a mysterious serial killer; aiding him is imprisoned criminal genius Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter.
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My First Hannibal Movie
Now I know it's a crime to not have seen any Hannibal movie before this one. But I haven't seen a lot of movies (when I was younger I hardly watched movies and instead spent most of my time reading books). I started getting interested in the Hannibal series when I started watching the new show Hannibal. In short, I was basically going into this movie without any preconceived notions that Red Dragon had to be like The Silence of the Lambs. I think this might've helped in my enjoyment of the movie. If you're wondering: No, I haven't read any of the Hannibal books by Thomas Harris. But I plan on reading them all in the future.

 The Interaction Between Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter
In the beginning of the movie it is implied that Will and Hannibal had had previous meetings. That they had worked together before (or at least Will had consulted with Hannibal about cases before). The first scene between the two ends with Will finding out the truth about Hannibal and then both nearly killing each other. So in the meat of the movie, Will is mentally scarred about what happened between himself and Hannibal (makes mention of this to Reba) and Hannibal is angry with Will. So each of their meetings is very tense with you seeing that, even though he's behind bars, Hannibal is the one in control. I saw that they both valued their past friendship (some of Hannibal's jabs seemed to be testing/teaching Will), but both know that any chance of them becoming friends is long gone. Will, being the one who has more normal human feelings, may be partially afraid because he remembers Hannibal as he used to know him. Hannibal, who is able to put emotions aside more easily, is able to have feelings for Will but at the same time seek revenge when the opportunity presents itself.

Buildup and Reward
Red Dragon has good buildup. It sets up this very eerie tone from the beginning (Hannibal serves his dinner guests human for dinner) and continues throughout. The whole movie relies much more on atmosphere than outright gore factor. I like this. Gore is good, but just because you have gore doesn't mean you have a horror movie. But a big thing with atmosphere is you need a good payoff. And this movie did that part well. The movie managed to give a good ending to the RebaXD plotline, Will having a showdown with D, and Hannibal's own musings on the outcome of what he put Will through.

Final Thoughts
I loved this movie. Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter was a great sight to see. Remember, this is my first FULL Hannibal movie and so I've only seen bits and pieces of the other ones. It's one thing to see clips of something, it's something else to see the whole movie. Edward Norton as Will Graham was good. In the scenes he had with Hopkins I could tell he was trying to hide his emotions. But he couldn't fool Hannibal. I liked seeing the villain being conflicted and so wasn't a fully evil character. He killed and had twisted views of the world, but he was also capable of feeling love. However, his mental instability won out in the end (though it seems he did truly care for Reba until the end). I can't wait to see the other movies in the series as well as read the books (yes, I'll probably even check out Manhunter).