Red Dragon tells the story of Will Graham (Edward Norton), the man who caught Hannibal Lecter, and his attempts to catch the latest serial killer named The Tooth Fairy (Ralph Fienes). This movie was previously made by Michael Mann during his Miami Vice days in 1986. It was called Manhunter, and starred William Petersen of recent C.S.I. fame, Tom Noonan as The Tooth Fairy, and Brian Cox as the first cinematic iteration of Hannibal Lecter. It is a good movie by itself, but I understand that it takes liberties with the book. Having seen them both now, Red Dragon tells much more of the backstory behind Francis Dolarhyde (The Tooth Fairy) and Ralph Fienes is great in this character. Also, Manhunter has a lot of 80s gloss and pastelle. So it looks dated.

Red Dragon is written by Ted Tally, the screenwriter from Silence of the Lambs, and directed by Brett Ratner, director of Rush Hour 2. I really enjoyed this movie because I like Hannibal Lecter. I had read in reviews that Hopkins was "doing" Lecter as opposed to "playing" Lecter, but I didn't think that was the case. I think the two may be hard to distinguish because he is an often parodied character, but when the Man is in the shoes, he is Lecter. The play between Hopkins and Norton is quite good. Norton is afraid like Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling, but also confident enough to taunt Lecter and make sure things happen on his terms. Ralph Fienes turns in a villain that you can almost sympathize with, and he can be really disturbing in the right places.

If I have a problem with Red Dragon, it is that Anthony Hopkins is no way visually believable as a Lecter before Silence. So you just have to go with it, like watching a grown man play a child in a play or something. Also, I don't like the line on the poster: "To understand the origin of evil, you must go back to the beginning." Alright, that sounds great, lets go back to the beginning. However, Lecter gets caught in the first 10 minutes of the movie, so the beginning of what? This is the second film where he is cooped up in the same cell the whole time. A lot of people think of Hannibal Lecter as this great villain, except he has not been the antagonist in ANY of the movies. Here is this great character that never gets to run wild. Even in Hannibal, he is not really doing his thing. He is a retired killer, trying to stay off the radar. I want to see the movie where Lecter gets caught at the end. Red Dragon has a really great opening, but it just reminds me of the movie or book that might have been. I kept reading about how Red Dragon is the return of the scary Lecter. Well, maybe, but he is still locked up the whole time. At least in Silence he gets an escape scene.

So, I would say that Red Dragon is not as good as Silence of the Lambs, but different from Hannibal. Let me go on the record by saying that I really like Hannibal. I think it is a great movie about unrequited love, and I really enjoyed watching the theater patrons squirm at the end. I think that Red Dragon makes Hannibal better as a matter of fact. It just gives you another movie to keep in mind while watching Hannibal. I did read Hannibal before I saw the movie, and that may have added to my enjoyment of it. I think the ending of the movie may be better than the book, but who is to say. People say that Thomas Harris betrayed the characters in the book, but he created them, so they do what he says.

So, Red Dragon is definitely worth seeing. If it does well, it wouldn't surprise me if they tried to do a prequel to it, which is the movie I want to see. Although, I don't know if audiences will come in for a fourth outing.