Will Graham, the FBI agent who had captured the mad cannibal Hannibal Lecter three years earlier, now lives with his family in Florida. The physical and especially psychological wounds that the dangerous criminal had inflicted on him have not completely disappeared and forced him to retire from the FBI. Now, however, he is needed again: Graham is contacted by his former partner to solve another case: two families have already been massacred on nights of the full moon by a mad killer who leaves no trace. There are three weeks left before the next full moon, but to find the elusive serial killer the only solution seems to be to resort to the help of Dr. Lecter… “Red Dragon” is the fourth film, in chronological order, based on the saga of Dr. Lecter created by writer Thomas Harris, but it is the cinematic adaptation of the first novel in the series (in Italy released with the title “I Delitti della Terza Luna”), already brought to the screen in 1986 by Michael Mann with the excellent “Manhunter – Frammenti di un Omicidio”. The film is produced once again by Dino De Laurentiis, who had already been the producer of Mann's film and then of Scott's “Hannibal”. After big names like Michael Mann, Jonathan Demme, and Ridley Scott, this time the direction passes into the hands of young director Bret Ratner (who has a series of box-office hit comedies to his credit in the USA). Ratner decides to follow Harris's story step by step and certainly takes advantage of a highly reliable cast of actors, who would probably have been able to carry the film on their own. Edward Norton, although he certainly does not offer one of his best performances (the times of “Schegge di Paura” and “American History X” are long gone), is rather convincing as the tormented agent Graham; Anthony Hopkins brings to life a Dr. Lecter worthy but decidedly less fascinating, mysterious, and seductive than his previous portrayals. Emily Watson, as a blind and unfortunate seductress, is remarkable as is Ralph Fiennes, who manages to embody the mad killer “Loup-Garou” in an absolutely credible way. What is really missing in “Red Dragon” is the suspense: there is not a single sequence in the entire film that truly manages to convey any shiver. The story unfolds in a too linear manner, Ratner's direction is flat, scholastic, almost didactic, everything is as expected and even the final twist (if you can call it that…) turns out to be obvious and absolutely devoid of pathos. Rather than a remake or a standalone film, this “Red Dragon” seems like a sort of television and watered-down version of Mann's film. Ratner's film does not possess the depth, suspense, emotional tension that “The Silence of the Lambs” had, nor the refined style of “Manhunter”, and it does not even manage to be as fun and excessive as Ridley Scott's “Hannibal”. Although based on what many of its admirers consider perhaps the best book by Harris, “Red Dragon” is undoubtedly the worst film in the series dedicated to the exploits of Dr. Lecter.
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