and now for a comparative analysis of hannibal vs. silence. silence of the lambs was about the mind games that hannibal played with clairece starrla. the focus of buffalo bill was really just used to display the cunning of hannibal to get what he wants. he uses the buffalo bill case to escape from the mental institution. he manipulates the situation and in the end, gets what he wants. he disappears into the crowd.
in hannibal, the movie starts with his mind games. he is anonymous in the world and he comes back into focus by choice. he wants to play these games still. it's been so many years and with starrla coming back into the limelight, now is his chance. anyways, the whole first half of the movie is the mind games that are so very interesting. as the movie progresses, though, it becomes more about grossing out the viewer. not that there is really anything wrong with that. it makes for a decent movie in it's own right. but it isn't as good as something like intelligent mind games. oh well.
to sum it up, i really liked the movie. if i didn't like it, i wouldn't have written a long review like this. so yea, i recommend it. also, see silence of the lambs if you haven't seen it. maybe it would be worth it to see it again sometime soon if you haven't seen it for many a years. :)