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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English, Dutch, English - Hearing Impaired, Hindi
  Extras

    Hannibal (Superbit)

    Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 126 mins . R . PAL

      Feature
    Contract

    My second Superbit title and also the second by Ridley Scott, superhuman director of so many cool films that I’m not going to go into them now. However, cool as his films may be, I couldn’t like this film as much as I wanted to. Being a Thomas Harris fan since 1990 when my flatmate handed me a hardback copy of The Silence of the Lambs and said, "You’ll like this", I didn’t like Hannibal the book as much as the others in the series. (They being Lambs and Red Dragon, the other Lecter film I've reviewed).

    Hannibal is a huge book at well over 100 chapters long and making it into a film was always going to be a monumental task. However, some of the best things about the book were eliminated from the film. The ending is entirely different, the scenes and events mixed up and out of order and characters have been changed quite wholly. All up it is a fairly loose interpretation of Hannibal the novel that made it into cinemas (and further onto DVD – not once, but now twice).

    So much of this film is given to lyrical beauty; the operettas of Italy and the magnificent scenery of Sardinia and Florence, yet the underlying current is one of human degradation that opposes this beauty so drastically as to make suffering both disgusting and oddly fascinating. This conflict rises within us and its own abnormality repulses us, and thereby the content of the film. This then casts aside all of that which attracts us to Dr Hannibal Lecter and his inexplicable charm. Then the problem is we don’t want to watch the film again because the conflict is too uncomfortable for us.

    "When the fox hears the rabbit scream he comes a-runnin’... but not to help."

    And this brings me to the question, why this has entered the Superbit family? It looks beautiful as I mentioned, but there isn’t enough scope in the film to warrant the whole Superbit thing. My last Superbit review on Gladiator described the awesome vision in the film and how fantastic the detail of massive battle scenes and Roman cityscapes worked so well in the format. There’s just nothing like that to compare in the Superbit version of Hannibal and that must remain my statement on this rather ordinary film. Regardless of my respect for Mr Scott and the majority of his films, the script is too simplified from the original complex story and it just doesn’t come together well. Add to that the Superbit thing and this appears as shallow moneymaking, because this is practically the same as the 'Collector's Edition', regardless of whether you have a ten dollar system or a $20,000 one.

      Video
    Contract

    Superb, naturally. Yet still there are failings. One would think aliasing would be diminished at least, being Superbit, and for the most part it is reduced, yet there are still glaring examples. The white road markings at 1:51:38 are a good example, as is the footbridge at 1:18:25. There are still film artefacts here and there. Sure, nothing major, but this isn’t an old film (to be fair, neither was Gladiator and it had them too). Whilst makeup is extraordinary, flesh tones look natural and shadows as well as blacks look sharp as hell, there are still grainy scenes in Clarice’s basement Lecter headquarters.

    Yep, the video is kick-arse, but it isn’t all that kick-arse.

      Audio
    Contract

    This is faultless audio. I looked and listened for problems, but to no avail - this is perfect in DTS and in Dolby Digital Surround 5.1. The music is resonant and haunting and well balanced with the film to create some quite eerie video/audio couplings. It sounds magnificent and has to get a ten here. As to dialogue, voiceovers and sound effects they, again, are all fabulous.

      Extras
    Contract

    This is absolutely devoid of extras of course. This is the ‘sacrifice’ we must endure to get the ‘better’ vision. Still, at least we don’t have to see that crappy alternate ending they have on the 'Collector’s Edition'. It’s worse than the crap version we got in the film.

      Overall  
    Contract

    While I stand by my devotion to Gladiator on Superbit, I can’t do the same for Hannibal. The sound is no different from the two-disc release in quality and the images just aren’t worth pepping up with Superbitidityness. If you like this film enough to buy it, I would recommend the 'Collector’s Edition' as it contains more stuff for roughly the same price - and it’s probably cheaper by now, too.


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      And I quote...
    "The de-evolution begins. This film needed Superbit like Lecter needed to be played by Adam Sandler."
    - Jules Faber
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Nintaus DVD-N9901
    • TV:
          Sony 51cm
    • Receiver:
          Diamond
    • Speakers:
          Diamond
    • Surrounds:
          No Name
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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