The only, and I mean THE ONLY, reason this didn't garner a "disliked" rating here in my review is because the cinematography is absolutely wonderful, but that's as far as my kudos extend. Everything else about this stinker reeks of franchise profiteering, and the script (supplied by none other than Thomas Harris, creator of the novels the films are based on) is an abysmal failure. Nothing will ruin the mystique of villainous characters more than probing into their sordid backgrounds, and I always believed that Hannibal's eeriness was in his dichotomous behavior. In "Silence of the Lambs", we are told chilling tales of his methodical psyche while dispatching victims, and when we meet him for the first time, he is calm and collected but feral, much like a caged lion. In "Red Dragon", we see him as one of society's elite members, and who could ever imagine this man capable of the horrors he commits? Here, we get none of these traits, and I believe this film was made strictly for the slasher crowd, and certainly not for the mystery/suspense crowd that made "Silence of the Lambs" such a thrilling film to watch.