BRIEF THOUGHTS: Red Dragon

Director: Brett Ratner
Starring: Edward Norton, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Fiennes
Plot: Detective William Graham relies on the aid of sociopath Hannibal Lecter to track down a serial killer who calls himself the Red Dragon.
Thoughts: A surprisingly decent adaptation. It has more Hannibal than the book, but that's certainly not a bad thing, as Hopkins once again steals the show. Considering the amount of character depth in the source material, the movie does a good job of getting the essentials into a two-hour film. Edward Norton is hit-and-miss, but the other actors fare better. This one of the few cases where artistic license was put to good use, with only a few exceptions. The opening and closing scenes really work, and it helps that a few of the same actors from Silence of the Lambs pop up here and there. Will Graham is a much more interesting character than Clarice Starling, and though the film doesn't quite flesh out his psyche as much as it possibly could have, it does a much better job at creating suspense than the 1986 adaptation, Manhunter.