6 Movies That Would Be Way More Awesome With Superman

5. Hannibal

Silence of the Lambs is considered a classic of American cinema. Not only is it a fascinating study of psychological depravity but it's also the only horror film to ever win an Academy Award for Best Picture. And in Hannibal Lecter we found a surprisingly complex villain with shades of the anti-hero, which only increased his power to captivate us. But several sequels, prequels and television adaptations later, we're now sadly inured to the idea of Hannibal and his suavely sophisticated serial killings. Like a bloodier James Bond, the character has an alarming amount of material based on him despite the often diminishing returns of his stories and the dilution of Hopkins' bravura performance among several much younger pretenders to the throne. Back in 2001, however, the first and frequently beleaguered extension of the film franchise was finally making its way to theatres and doing so in a big way, and although it made records at the time, it drew a mixed critical reception, ultimately warding off most of the fans of the original. Having lost significant members of Silence's cast and crew, mainly due to the insanity of author Thomas Harris' notorious source novel, Hannibal was released under a dark cloud and its reputation has never really recovered. But there are joys here, even if they are a little more on the conventional side. For one thing, Hopkins really does get to cut loose in full-on supervillain mode. The problem is that he's missing a superhero to throw himself against, someone to match his energy even if it is only with spectacle - someone to signal to the audience to adjust their expectations and throw out any notion of subtlety right out the gate. And if you've read the title to this article then you already know where we're going with this. Hannibal Lecter versus Superman! Come on, how could that not be fantastic? Heat vision! Tongue slithering! Fava beans and flying! Yeah. That would have been great.