This is yet another version of classical Greek myth... this one is a bit closer to the 'original' that the 1963 Harryhausen one.
I know the above will be a bit inflammatory to some but it is true. The baseline for them myth is the Apollonius poem and Harryhausen himself said they had added to the story to make it more Hollywood.
Apollonius states that Jason was more of a charismatic diplomat/trader than a warrior... both qualities I felt the actor was unable to play to the level required.
Medea was the daughter of Aertes and a High Priestess. She saved Jason and the Argonauts by cutting the brother into pieces and scattering them behind the Argo so that the pursuing fleet would have to stop and pick them up for burial. Jolene Blalock has the exotic looks for the part but the wooden acting style of Keanu Reeves...
The journey was well portrayed - the stop at Lemmnos especially so. It was also nice to see Jason facing the fire breathing bull - though it was not originally mechanical and there were two of them. The fact that he had to plough the fields and sow the Teeth was also a good point. Medea had given Jason an ointment to protect him from the fire of the Bulls (included in the scene) - she also gave him a magical stone with which to defeat the warriors (note, they were never skeletons in the original), a sort of magic grenade which made short work of them.
Retrieving the Fleece was well done - it replaced the Harryhausen Hydra (which was not in the original - he 'stole' it from the Lernaen Hydra Hercules fought) - with a lizard that Orpheus sang to sleep. The Apollonian story had a huge, horned snake calmed and put to sleep by the sound of Medea's voice - so it was a slight bending.
The fall of Hercules was interesting... and I felt Brian Thompson was underused badly here...
The return to Iolchos to face Dennis Hopper (who played a good part in the paranoiac Pelias) ended in a bit of a farce with the Fleece being stolen (as if Jason/Medea would let it out of their sight!) then paraded through the streets... Medea's approach to Pelias was difficult to understand - did she go to stay with the Fleece or was it to kill Pelias? But after short fight scene (indoors to keep down the number of extras required) the survivors all live happily ever after in true Hollywood style...
Of course, if you go back to the original tragic myth (pre-Apollonius), Pelias refused to give up his throne, Jason could not kill him (against Greek law), so Medea killed him by magic and ended up being exiled with Jason (who she later killed along with their children when Jason wanted to leave her for another woman)...
All in all, a reasonable version - the effects were iffy at times and the standard of acting let it down - but still a watchable version that is totally different from the Harryhausen Hollywood spectacular.
I know the above will be a bit inflammatory to some but it is true. The baseline for them myth is the Apollonius poem and Harryhausen himself said they had added to the story to make it more Hollywood.
Apollonius states that Jason was more of a charismatic diplomat/trader than a warrior... both qualities I felt the actor was unable to play to the level required.
Medea was the daughter of Aertes and a High Priestess. She saved Jason and the Argonauts by cutting the brother into pieces and scattering them behind the Argo so that the pursuing fleet would have to stop and pick them up for burial. Jolene Blalock has the exotic looks for the part but the wooden acting style of Keanu Reeves...
The journey was well portrayed - the stop at Lemmnos especially so. It was also nice to see Jason facing the fire breathing bull - though it was not originally mechanical and there were two of them. The fact that he had to plough the fields and sow the Teeth was also a good point. Medea had given Jason an ointment to protect him from the fire of the Bulls (included in the scene) - she also gave him a magical stone with which to defeat the warriors (note, they were never skeletons in the original), a sort of magic grenade which made short work of them.
Retrieving the Fleece was well done - it replaced the Harryhausen Hydra (which was not in the original - he 'stole' it from the Lernaen Hydra Hercules fought) - with a lizard that Orpheus sang to sleep. The Apollonian story had a huge, horned snake calmed and put to sleep by the sound of Medea's voice - so it was a slight bending.
The fall of Hercules was interesting... and I felt Brian Thompson was underused badly here...
The return to Iolchos to face Dennis Hopper (who played a good part in the paranoiac Pelias) ended in a bit of a farce with the Fleece being stolen (as if Jason/Medea would let it out of their sight!) then paraded through the streets... Medea's approach to Pelias was difficult to understand - did she go to stay with the Fleece or was it to kill Pelias? But after short fight scene (indoors to keep down the number of extras required) the survivors all live happily ever after in true Hollywood style...
Of course, if you go back to the original tragic myth (pre-Apollonius), Pelias refused to give up his throne, Jason could not kill him (against Greek law), so Medea killed him by magic and ended up being exiled with Jason (who she later killed along with their children when Jason wanted to leave her for another woman)...
All in all, a reasonable version - the effects were iffy at times and the standard of acting let it down - but still a watchable version that is totally different from the Harryhausen Hollywood spectacular.