Jason and the Argonauts

Nice and elaborate juvenile adventure based on The Argonauts 250 BC, written by Apolonio of Rodas, telling of the famous myth of Jason and his crew of derring-doers and their search for the Golden Fleece. As Jason, heir of the Iolco kingdom : Jason London, is aided or hindered by assorted whimsical Gods on Olympus, Zeus : August McFayden , and Hera : Olivia Williams, as he quests for the Golden Fleece. Along the way his father is killed by his evil uncle Pelias , Dennis Hopper in braids , who has taken the throne and usurped his inheritance. In order to reclaim it, Jason must retrieve the magical animal from distant Colchis and bring it to Pelias. Jason has to meet the blinded prophet Phineas : Derek Jacobi who knows the Fleece location, but he is continuously harassed by some winged demons or Arpias. As Jason assembles the ordinary motley crew : Hercules : Brian Thompson, Castor : Djalili , Polux : John Sharian , Orpheus : Adrian Lester, Argos himself : David Calder, all of them would-be heroes and set sail on the Argos for uncharted waters and numerous adventures to arrive in Colchis where governs a sinister king : Frank Langella who has two sons, the astute Aspyrtes : James Callis and the clairvoyant Medea : Jolene Blalock who falls for Jason . At the same time, Jason confronts rutless Amazons women : Natasha Henstridge, a corpulent bull, sword-wielding living plants and a giant dragon, among others.

Epic and mythological fare, fun for the whole family with several adventures, thrills, emotion, noisy action and the film itself is given an enormous boost thanks to computer generator special effects. As the impressive adventures are well recreated by superb FX with multitude of mythological creatures. As during his quest for the Golden Fleece Jason has to combat the giant Poseidon, a huge iron bull, winged she-devils and a dragon guarding the Fleece, this battle is the highlight of the movie. The gigantic mechanical bronze bull that Jason fights is an arthritic disappointment but most of the other inventions are pleasingly imaginative. Great fun, as these things go, with a colorful cinematography by Sergei Kozlov and a good musical score by Simon Boswell, to boot . The motion picture was professionally directed by Nick Willing.

This one is a TV rendition, there are other cinematic adaptations as The Giants of Thessaly 1960 by Riccardo Fedra with Ronald Carey, Ziva Rodann, Alberto Farnese, Tamberlani, Massimo Giroti. And the best : Jason and the Argonauts 1965 by Don Chaffey, including captivating FX, the actual stars of the movie, by master Ray Harryhausen with Todd Armstrong, Nancy Kovack, Jack Gwillin, Honor Blackman, Douglas Wilmer, Gary Raymond.

It's a good indication of just how bad television is becoming when one spends four hours watching such reprehensible ineptitude as this. As a guy who has grown up with Greek myth since I could understand language it's difficult to express how insulted I was by this ludicrous film. Taking liberties with a storyline is one thing. Reinventing it to fit a Hollywood formula is something different: the inclusion of blacks and women among the Argonauts is inexcusable no matter what the producer's motives--not because Atalanta wouldn't have made a good Argonaut, but because she wasn't, and Orpheus was Greek, not Ethiopian. The involvement of Hercules for the entire voyage instead of for only part of the first stage like in the real legend is almost forgiveable after that. For all of that however, the biggest beef with "Jason and the Argonauts" is not that it leaves out huge slabs of the journey, makes up new parts and juggles characters to suit itself. In fact, it gets some parts right: sending the dove between the clashing rocks for example, and Jason's relationship to Pilias among little else. Overall, this film is just lame, a poor, typically made-for-television sham of a cracking good story, exploiting all the best bits for all their worth and completing omitting or changing others. For those who only know the legend from this film: Orpheus wasn't black, Atalanta wasn't an Argonaut, Medea was a cold-blooded conniving bitch who cut up her own brother and fed him to the sharks and Hercules quit the voyage early on to go searching for his gay lover who got spirited away by river nymphs. Let's hope that, one day, some film producer has the guts to tell this story the way is was supposed to be told--and maybe use Hercules' real Greek name (Heracles) to boot.

The criterion "sense of wonder" is commonly applied to sci-fi works, but is even more relevant to the fantasy genre. When the reader or viewer is touched by feelings of awe and mystery, they feel "moved" and have a deeper, more positive reaction to the artwork being witnessed.

The Harryhausen film was much more successful at this: the Bernard Herrmann score was masterful, and certain scenes portraying the interaction of gods and human beings (such as in the temple of Hera, the transformation of Hermes, the awakening of Talos) conveyed the deep reverence and awe that Bronze Age Greeks must have felt towards their gods. This newer Hallmark version conveys an attitude towards the Greek gods closer to mockery and amusement, perhaps appropriate for the "sophisticated" Athens in the age of Euripides or Aristophanes, but certainly out of touch with the period over a thousand years earlier when Jason lived.

This TV mini series was on over the Easter Holidays and i was caught by the impressive cast that they had lined up for this movie.... i also had to watch it also because i really enjoy greek mythology. What i got was over 3 hours of false mythology that doesn't even deserve to share the same title as the 1960's original.

Jason London was not convincing as the main character Jason, neither was Dennis Hopper unfortunately who fell victim to a silly scene at the end where hes wearing the fleece on his head, it cracked me up, he looked an idiot. Natasha Henstridge and Derek Jakobi were not in it enough to make any sort of impression and the gods were too merciful i thought.

The SFX was okay, but i still prefer the ground breaking effects of Ray Harryhausen who's designs for the titans in the original scared me when i was younger.

This film was false when it comes to sticking by the facts of greek mythology i.e. there were no female argonauts - Atlantas is a false. Also the fact that Orpheus was greek and not African, these are just a few points from many mistakes that effected this series.

My two biggest groans though must be.... a) Why did they replace Talos the bronze giant with that stupid bull, Talos was my favourite Titan in the original and i was looking forward to see him redesigned for this series.......but not into a stupid bull that breathes fire....OH DEAR! Also the Hydra was replaced by a dragon......why?......i don't know?

and b) The sound effects were not as ground breaking as the original. The sound for the original film captured half the scene, an example being the appearance of Talos - it created tension. It was sorely missed.

In the end Hollywood have spoilt mythology and replaced it with a child's bed time story........5/10

In watching the movie, it was very difficult to get past Jason London's poor acting. At no point during of the movie did it ever seem like he had any grasp of his part--he never seemed regal, charismatic (a leader), or powerful. London always seemed out of place with a reasonably strong cast around him. Too bad...the movie could have been pretty good.