The myths from the Ancient Greek society have inspired this story of a young man searching for the Golden Fleece. Jason is the son of a slain king and is destined to defeat the ruling king. To defeat the king he must find this Golden Fleece at the end of the world. He assembles a small band of men, the Argonauts, to go on this journey with him. Along the way they encounter several treacherous situations, from raging seas to giant Bronze statues.
The script is cleverly written and holds something for everybody. Although the story sometimes lacks some speed, it is still a joy to watch this movie. The characterization is well done, Jason is a daring young chap, who is determined to avenge his father's death. Hercules is for once portrayed as a strong, potent man who has supernatural powers. Unfortunately the female characters were a bit left behind in this work of testosterone, Medea makes no impact as the love-interest of Jason and her choice between serving her country or going for Jason is severely underlighted, but in the end you wouldn't really care anyway. Jason gets the fleece and frees his people with a little help from his friends, the Gods. Zeus'character is taut as ever, a fine performance there. Heda is played fine as well. After all they are gods.
The real star of this movie are the special effects. Ray Harryhausen is a God when it comes to stop-motion animation. He has been an influence on the greatest in the business, like Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, and numerous other heavy-weights. His work in this film ranges from a seven-headed hydra to flying evil harpies to an enormous bronze statue and to top it all off a sequence of several minutes with 7 (!) skeletons battling 3 fighters!
Let's discuss them: the hydra was not very impressive to see at first, it just kind of stand there wiggling its heads around and sometimes snaps at Jason. Jason never really hits the hydra, either. So this must be the least exciting piece of the movie. But when you look closer this is one magnificent piece of work, stop-motion animating 7 heads at the same time is awesome and extremely complicated. It is quite understandable that Ray did not have the time or probably the will to make the body more animate.
The harpies were very well done, the mix between animated character and real-life characters was very well done. The wings were very beautifully animated. Fantastic to see the actors working on top of this old genuine temple with the nets and such. Cool scene.
The bronze statue Talos was magnificent. I was blown out of my seat by this sequence, the sound! I had heard of the skeleton sequence, but I had never heard of this, and it totally blew me away. The sound of the metal plating screeching itself and the metal bending and screaming was very very very well done. The way the expressionless face of the statue became a face that was animated by movements of the hands was exquisite.
And then the final sequence of the movie is probably the greatest I have ever seen in a motion picture. Even King Kong or Star Wars (and I am an avid SW fan) cannot top this. For several minutes I found myself nailed to my seat because of these brilliant skeletons fighting Jason and two of his Argonauts. The expressions on their faces, the movements of their seemingly living bones was so genuine and convincing that after a few seconds you find yourself completely believing that this is really happening. In The Mummy (1999) there's a sequence where the main character battles 13 mummies at the same time, I'm sorry to say that the skeleton sequence will continue to beat any CGI created sequence for many years to come. The sheer audacity with which Ray has animated 7 skeletons at the same time and manages to blend these perfectly into the live action shot earlier.
The art direction and set dressing were done in a very colourful, cheery way, which was a relief. The coloring of some of the scenes was astonishing. The way the copper oxide glinted off of Talos's body was magnificent. Some of the photography could have been better, several of the scenes shot in front of a blue screen were just not good enough. I think we can attribute this to budget constraints.
Great story, spectacular special effects, good performances come together to make this a very memorable movie and a sure classic in the genre.
9/10
The script is cleverly written and holds something for everybody. Although the story sometimes lacks some speed, it is still a joy to watch this movie. The characterization is well done, Jason is a daring young chap, who is determined to avenge his father's death. Hercules is for once portrayed as a strong, potent man who has supernatural powers. Unfortunately the female characters were a bit left behind in this work of testosterone, Medea makes no impact as the love-interest of Jason and her choice between serving her country or going for Jason is severely underlighted, but in the end you wouldn't really care anyway. Jason gets the fleece and frees his people with a little help from his friends, the Gods. Zeus'character is taut as ever, a fine performance there. Heda is played fine as well. After all they are gods.
The real star of this movie are the special effects. Ray Harryhausen is a God when it comes to stop-motion animation. He has been an influence on the greatest in the business, like Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, and numerous other heavy-weights. His work in this film ranges from a seven-headed hydra to flying evil harpies to an enormous bronze statue and to top it all off a sequence of several minutes with 7 (!) skeletons battling 3 fighters!
Let's discuss them: the hydra was not very impressive to see at first, it just kind of stand there wiggling its heads around and sometimes snaps at Jason. Jason never really hits the hydra, either. So this must be the least exciting piece of the movie. But when you look closer this is one magnificent piece of work, stop-motion animating 7 heads at the same time is awesome and extremely complicated. It is quite understandable that Ray did not have the time or probably the will to make the body more animate.
The harpies were very well done, the mix between animated character and real-life characters was very well done. The wings were very beautifully animated. Fantastic to see the actors working on top of this old genuine temple with the nets and such. Cool scene.
The bronze statue Talos was magnificent. I was blown out of my seat by this sequence, the sound! I had heard of the skeleton sequence, but I had never heard of this, and it totally blew me away. The sound of the metal plating screeching itself and the metal bending and screaming was very very very well done. The way the expressionless face of the statue became a face that was animated by movements of the hands was exquisite.
And then the final sequence of the movie is probably the greatest I have ever seen in a motion picture. Even King Kong or Star Wars (and I am an avid SW fan) cannot top this. For several minutes I found myself nailed to my seat because of these brilliant skeletons fighting Jason and two of his Argonauts. The expressions on their faces, the movements of their seemingly living bones was so genuine and convincing that after a few seconds you find yourself completely believing that this is really happening. In The Mummy (1999) there's a sequence where the main character battles 13 mummies at the same time, I'm sorry to say that the skeleton sequence will continue to beat any CGI created sequence for many years to come. The sheer audacity with which Ray has animated 7 skeletons at the same time and manages to blend these perfectly into the live action shot earlier.
The art direction and set dressing were done in a very colourful, cheery way, which was a relief. The coloring of some of the scenes was astonishing. The way the copper oxide glinted off of Talos's body was magnificent. Some of the photography could have been better, several of the scenes shot in front of a blue screen were just not good enough. I think we can attribute this to budget constraints.
Great story, spectacular special effects, good performances come together to make this a very memorable movie and a sure classic in the genre.
9/10