How come Thomas Harris was capable of creating one of the most beloved villains/anti-heroes of our time, Hannibal Lecter, only to destroy him? Money. What Rob Zombie did for Michael Myers in Halloween, Thomas Harris did in the novel and cosigned by writing the movie Hannibal Rising. I don’t blame anyone except the one responsible for the story, Thomas Harris, but it doesn’t help that British actors are playing Nazis and Russians, a French guy is playing someone from Lithuania, a Chinese woman plays a Japanese woman, an American actor from The Wire plays a French man. Rhys Ifans seemed to have fun chewing the scenery. The story is so ridiculous. Lecter learns the way of the samurai to avenge his sister’s death & the mask featured in the poster is a samurai mask–an allusion to Silence of the Lambs. I love vengeance movies, but this is a piece of crap. Hard work should not be equated with good work. Please stop reverse engineering excellent villains and using simplistic psychoanalysis to explain them. Can’t a monster sometimes just be a monster?