San Francisco Chronicle by Peter Hartlaub

Hannibal Rising isn't a classic, but it's entertaining and a surprisingly fitting addition to the franchise.

Premiere by Jenni Miller

The story's beginning is in a rush to get to the the killings, which get more and more disgusting.

New York Daily News by Jack Mathews

This strikes me as the final nail in the franchise's coffin. I can't name an actor who could have made young Lecter as interesting as the older one, but Ulliel does not come close.

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

It's a handsomely mounted but poky thriller undone by a fatally miscast lead.

Film Threat by Mark Bell

This is essentially a by-the-numbers revenge film with some attempts at deeper characterization. The difference between this film and, say, "Batman Begins" is that Bruce Wayne, upon finding the tormentors of his youth, never tried to kill and eat them.

Portland Oregonian by Shawn Levy

It's a handsome film, but the pace is continually gummy and the set-ups stiff and artificial. Most crucially, nothing in it vanquishes the sensation that we're being sold something superfluous -- like a service contract for a carton of eggs.

Variety by Dennis Harvey

This upmarket slasher is a well-produced but slow-moving thriller that never quite roars to life.

Baltimore Sun by Michael Sragow

Most of the movie makes too much sense and is no fun at

Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea

What Hannibal Rising is, mostly, is a hoot.

Village Voice by Jim Ridley

This comically fastidious telling of the Hannibal Lecter origin story completes the extreme makeover of grindhouse fare that "The Silence of the Lambs" started 15 years ago. Meaning: Respectable audiences who wouldn't be caught dead at a (sniff!) horror movie still want severed heads; they just want the bloody meal served on Royal Dalton china.

Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer

Thomas Harris adapted his own bestseller and Peter Webber, who previously directed "Girl with a Pearl Earring," had the unenviable task of trying to give this glop, which is too gruesome to be campy, a high gloss. It should be called Man With a Severed Head.

Washington Post by Stephen Hunter

The movie streamlines much of Harris's book. It's a shame, because it results in the movie's fundamental flaw -- the one-dimensionality of Hannibal.

Empire by Kim Newman

Gong Li is welcome as Hannibal's Japanese aunt-in-law/mentor, Gaspard Ulliel isn't a bad young Lecter and Webber's direction is intermittently classy -- but this is a footnote rather than a film.

Los Angeles Times

Bad as Harris' Hannibal Rising screenplay (his first) is, at least it's an improvement on his dreadful book, streamlining its convoluted action and discarding large chunks of unspeakable dialogue.

Austin Chronicle

Who would have thought mass murder and cannibalism could be so dull?

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker

Not just a bad film, Hannibal Rising is downright dull, which is a far worse crime.

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

The funniest movie of the year - a true laugh riot. Viewers will be holding their sides to contain the laughter. Forget Borat - if you're looking for something hilarious, this is the movie to see. What's that? It's not supposed to be a comedy. Oops.

Chicago Tribune

A sort-of combination of "Lambs," "Batman Begins" and "The Joy of Cooking," Hannibal Rising ostensibly dramatizes the atrocities that turned Hannibal Lecter from loving child to serial killer. But this film is larded up with so many food references that I'm undecided whether this story belongs in a film compendium or a recipe file.

The Hollywood Reporter by Michael Rechtshaffen

It's all quite a mess, with awkward performances, worse dialogue and a painfully protracted running time conspiring against any chance of enjoyment, even in a so-bad-it's-good guilty pleasure way.

The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis

Silly, slack and unforgivably tedious, Thomas Harris's screenplay is padded with interminable flashbacks and a bombastic score that telegraphs every emotion Hannibal represses. And there are a lot of them.