JASON
AND THE
Argonauts
REVIEW DATE: 2/24/99

Once the special FX buffs in the audience here me say Jason and the Argonauts they probably think "Wow, a Ray Harryhausen movie," not "Wow a (insert writer's name here) movie," or "wow a (insert director's name here) movie," oh no.

Seams to me that ol' Ray has made a career out of taking credit for other people's movies. I mean have you ever heard of Don Chaffey? He's the stiff who directed this movie. Ever heard of  Jan Read or Beverley Cross? Well we have them to thank for this movie since they wrote the screenplay in the first place. No, this is a Ray Harryhausen movie. Jeez, people complain about special effects being to important in today's movies but many times Ray Harryhausen is the only person anyone can name from this movie's crew. 

Sigh. Whatever.

The story in this "Ray Harryhausen movie" is the story of Jason (as if you didn't know). No, Jason (Todd Armstrong)  isn't a hockey masked psychopathic maniac, instead Jason is a prince of a Greek kingdom. After his father is overthrown when he is but a baby Jason comes back to his kingdom twenty years later. He could just kill the guy who over through his father, but no. "The people need a hero," he says. So, instead, he plans to steal a golden fleece (a fleece is the skull and skin of a ram [the animal, not the truck] for those of you who are mythically challenged), once he has the fleece people will think it as a gift from the gods, and everybody will look up to Jason.

With some help from the Goddess, Hera (Honor Blackman) Jason gets both a ship and a crew together. The ship is called the Argo so those who sail on it are the Argonauts, get it? On the way to where the fleece resides the Argonauts run into all the dangers of Ancient Greek life. Ya know, Harpies, clashing rocks, Hydras and giant bronze people. Oh, and lets not forget the living skeletons.

This movie has Ray Harryhausen's name on it so you can guess how the special effects are can't you. I first saw this movie when I was six but these things don't look any less real, even if I have grown old and cynical. What's especially good is the fight between the Argonauts and a horde of skeleton warriors. Now, what they did with this movie is to have the skeleton's actually physically interact with the actors in the same shot. I swear it looks like these people are actually fighting a horde of living skeletons. For me, weather or not a special effect can interact with people is the mark of a truly good effect.

Now we are forced to look at acting and discover. . .its actually pretty good. Todd Armstrong does act a bit melodramatic at times, but I can let that go. The really good actors in the cast are the above mentioned Honor as Hera and Niall MacGinnis as Zeus. The two really act well off each other. MacGinnis plays his part of Zeus as a quite fleshed out and three dimensional character, which is good since the character is basically one note to being with.

Honor plays the part of Hera in as if the queen of the Gods was a sort of new age woman. She's not to feminine, which is good, but she isn't the self righteous, jealous bitch that the original Greek myths portrait Hera as.

And that's another thing. While I did like the movie I still can't get over how it messes with Greek myths. Take the Hydra for example. In original Greek myth the Hydra was not the guardian of the fleece, it was the 2nd labor of Hercules. And just what is Hercules doing in this story, humm?

And then we have our love story. Yes, a love story, even here. During the last half hour of the movie Jason falls for this girl named Medea (Nancy Kovack). They're together for about 3 scenes before Medea falls in love with Jason. Excuse me?! I know he saved her life from danger but 3 scenes is hardly enough time to set up a romance. I was watching the movie very attentively and I didn't see a dimes worth of set up for this romance. It just plain through me for a loop. Note to the writers: its called "build up", use it.

See what I mean about being old and cynical?

But despite that, and all the little ways this movie messes with Greek mythology I still would recommend it to anyone. It has good acting, great special effects (the Harpies only look like clay instead of flesh in one shot, that's a damn good average) and a two fisted hero we can root for. Those Greeks had the action movie down back 2000 years before the movie projector was invented. Hail the Greeks.

RATING (OUT OF A POSSIBLE FIVE)

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