Oh dear. This hasn’t gone at all to plan, has it? Not quite camp enough to be as enjoyably terrible as Hannibal and unworthy of sharing the same DVD shelf as Manhunter, this predictably superfluous prequel follows a young Lecter from childhood in Lithuania. In a dark fairy story opener, replete with castle and wolves, Hannibal watches as his sister is cannibalised by a preposterously evil band of marauding irregulars. For some reason his teen years are spent in France with a Japanese aunt who is played by the not Japanese Gong Li. In a development that’s so fantastic it might as well be a talking rainbow, she puts him through his paces as a lover and a samurai. In keeping with the Genesis Of The Superhero title, a Backstreet Boy worthy Hannibal (Ulliel) uses his newfound skills to hunt down the grotesques who killed his sister, including gang leader and Nazi collaborator Vladis Grutas (Ifans with a dodgy Russian accent).
Nobody emerges unscathed from the mess that ensues. Director Peter Webber shows little of the restraint he demonstrated with Girl With A Pearl Earring. Gong Li, who in Mandarin cinema can communicate more with the flutter of an eyelash than most actors can manage with a lengthy monologue, once again appears to stiffen when English is required. Ulliel, like practically everything else in the film, seems wholly anachronistic. What year is this anyway? How did Hannibal get his hands on that Glenn Gould recording from the future? Just when you think things can’t get any siller, an audacious piece of foreshadowing sees Ulliel don a samurai mask similar to the restraints worn by Anthony Hopkins in The Silence Of The Lambs.
Ready yourselves. Hannibal Reloaded and Hannibal: A New Hope can’t be too far away.