I went to see this film last week on a night when the cinema had a cheap £2.50 night.
I am glad I did as I wouldn't pay a fiver to watch it!

The film starts off with some strange attempt at subliminal imagery during the opening titles which contains a lot of pidgeons, the relevance (or irrelevance) of which becomes clear later on in the film.

The actual opening scene is of a very familiar looking Barney who worked in the asylum which held Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. We see him selling Lecter memorabilia to one of Lecters original victims who is very rich and who is completely obsessed by the man who took his face.

In the next scene, which is fast paced and action packed, we see Clarice for the first time. Clarice Starling has now become a special FBI agent and is heading an operation to catch a female criminal. The operation goes horribly wrong, although through no fault of Starling's, and she is brought before a group of her peers and bosses. Her downfall is front page in the newspapers.

The rich, and somewhat influencial, Lecter victim gets Starling put back on the case of Lecter and gets the case reopened.

So there you have it, Starling is in trouble and Lecter is still on the loose from the first film. Of course Lecter hears of Starlings problems and contacts her. This starts off the chain of events which will lead to the tracking down of Lecter by the FBI and a very greedy policeman.

Anthony Hopkins is faultless, as ever, at playing Hannibal although I felt that the script let him down.

As Hannibal is free during this film there are more graphic scenes of violence and gore. Another result of Hannibals freedom is that he can mentally torment more people. The character of Hannibal becomes a bit of a joke through his continual use of cannibalistic innuendos (which only the audience gets). These are incredibly funny and caused the whole cinema to erupt with laughter, however this detra
cted from and took the edge off the film.

There is great use made of original and dubbed soundtrack from the first film in the medium of tapes made of Starlings interviews with the incarcerated Lecter in the first film. This only serves to remind you how good the first film was but may be useful for those that haven't seen Silence of the Lambs.

It is quite interesting that Hannibal becomes the hunted in this film by not only the police and FBI but also a former victim.

I wont tell you anymore about the storyline except that it is fairly predictable, although some parts are very immaginative and shocking.
In some ways the storyline mirrors that of the first film but only quite loosely.

I didn't come out of the cinema feeling anything strongly about this film. I didn't have that exhilerating feeling which I sometimes get when I come out from seeing a really great film (Gladiator springs to mind).
Some scenes did stick with me for a few days and I did have some very odd dreams..... although that could have been all those subliminal messages from the opening titles (damn pidgeons!)

The film had so much potential but I think the directors went for slasher when they should have gone for psychological thriller.

If you are going to see this film please go on a cheap night without too many expectations!