10 Movie Moments We Waited Years For (That Didn't Live Up To Expectations)

5. Hannibal Lecter On The Loose - Hannibal

While it was a shame that Jodie Foster didn't return for it, the success of The Silence Of The Lambs had always made a sequel likely. Somehow, it took 11 years and the release of Thomas Harris' third Lecter book - Hannibal - to get the project off the ground.

Even without mainstream audiences knowing a great deal about the book, the return of Anthony Hopkins' iconic villain was the big selling point, particularly now that he would be off the leash. Surely that would spell a delightful, bloody orgy cementing his position as one of cinema's most fearsome villains?

But Then...

Save for one absolutely stunning scene in the opera and one delightfully memeable kill sequence (when Ray Liotta gets to eat his own brain), the sequel ended up being curiously toothless. Lecter was too demystified and his threat was blunted in an attempt to make him more sympathetic, missing the point that he was appealing precisely because his charisma worked entirely against our better judgement in the original.

It could have been a hell of a lot more and in the end, it failed to be much more than a collection of admirable moments knitted together poorly.