It isn't easy to see where the Hannibal Lecter films can go from here in terms of providing anything new but certainly delving back into Hannibal's childhood to show the evolution of a psycho's mind wasn't the answer especially if the resulting hotch-potch isn't going to involve the charismatic key to the whole thing, Anthony Hopkins, who of course combines admirable finesse with the cold-blooded filleting of a human mind.

Taken from the Thomas Harris novel (so far fairly poorly received), produced by Dino de Laurentis and directed by Peter 'Girl With A Pearl Earring' Webber, the story begins with a young boy in the Second World War witnessing the murder of his parents and the barbaric slaughter of his cute younger sister eaten by a band of desperate Lithuanian savages who complain that there's nothing else to eat. The boy escapes - eventually making his way to Paris and into the comforting care of a Japanese aunt Lady Murasaki (played strangely by Chinese actress Gong Li).

The young Lecter - is played for some reason by Gaspard Ulliel (with a sometimes difficult to decipher accent) - perhaps they couldn't get Christian Bale who after playing a similar part in American Psycho would have been perfect for the role.

Much of the rest of the film is a revenge horror flick with Lector slowly catching up with the members of the gang who ate his sister (led by a cold calculating Rhys Ifans) and ensuring that each one comes to a sorry end.

What's lacking here is any kind of subtlety and appreciation of culture. Hannibal as played by Hopkins is an educated sort with a wicked black humour, vicious, barbed, intelligent, a lover of the arts. We should get some sense of Hannibal learning about the finer things in life if there is to be continuity between Lecters, but instead we mostly just get Gaspard playing the ruthless killer with a slight sense of humour, but little more. About the only decent things in the film is the soundtrack and the briefest appearance of the black hogs that were such a delight in Hannibal - but even they're given little to do here.

It might be best to save your money - even if you're a Lecter fan, if you do go, you're sure to feel there's a hollowness to this effort and a feeling that with a more devious and tighter script, this could have been better, but at least it explains in some way how Lecter became the monster that he was in later films.