Jason And the Argonauts (2000)

Movie Review

Directed by: Nick Willing

It has an eye-catching and interesting form of event and gives the viewers a determination in life towards ancient Greece.

         It started a group of soldiers invaded his father’s kingdom by his uncle, Pelias. A guard escaped Jason after he watched his father die at the hands of Pelias. After 20 years, he returned to retrieve his right. He was given the task to find the Golden Fleece and he entreated the other Greeks including Orpheus and Hercules. They were called Argonauts because they sailed with Jason in the ship Argo. After so many adventures they reached the land of Fleece. Jason was aided by Medea. He returned to the kingdom, he was fooled by Pelias so he killed his uncle and retrieves his kingdom back. The film is about bravery, finding one’s destiny, leap of faith and his love for his family.

        At first, I thought Orpheus was white or maybe it was really what I've expected. Jason London, being Jason, portrayed his role well. He was handsome and well built. Jolene Blalock, being Medea, gave her character a mysterious and fierce look that suits Medea's face. Brian Thompson who played the role as Hercules has a big body like how I imagined Hercules would be. Olivia Williams was really beautiful and did well portraying a goddess. The movie features a great choice of characters.

        I've seen at least two of the films stunning visuals effects sequences like the harpies that look realistic and the giant of the sea, Poseidon. Some animations were poorly made. The transitions were fine. The twist was also good like Medea tricked Pelias and wanted to marry him to protect the Golden Fleece.

 

       Some noise were not good, especially the bulls noise because it’s not realistic at all. The harpies were fine. Passing through the rocks were okay. When a character talks, the background music doesn't overlap. The music is good as well as the background music.

        Since it’s not an advance high technology movie were mostly today’s movies shows a realistic effects. I don’t expect from a 2000 film. It would be better to remake this film, but the movie was really great.

Jason and the Argonauts (2000)

Cast: Jason London, Frank Langella, Natasha Henstridge

Director: Nick Willing

Review:

Nick Willing failed to impress me with this movie.

The first part of the movie was dragging for me as it was both too slow and too fast paced. Scenes were poorly executed and the characters were also not introduced properly.

In this movie, one of the greatest adventures in Greek mythology comes to life. Jason, the prince of the kingdom of Ancient Greece, watched his father die at the hands of his own uncle, Pelias. He escapes death, flees his home, and returns twenty years after to reclaim his right to the throne. When Pelias knew that Jason will return, he now wants him dead, but Jason pleaded to save his life through going to a perilous quest, to bring the most coveted gift from the gods to his uncle – the Golden Fleece. He forms the Argonauts, and together, sail the boat Argo to get the Golden Fleece.

The movie's principle is to believe and take a leap of faith. Even if the quest was quite impossible for them, as none of the Argonauts knew how to sail a ship, they still went through their journey and became successful.

Jason London handled his character, Jason, fine. London's looks suited Jason as a young man that looks well like a prince. Hercules, played by Brian Thompson, definitely brought justice to his character. His buff physique really gave me the idea that he really is the divine hero of of the gods. One thing that caught my eye though, was that the actor for Orpheus was black, no racism intended. I think it just did not suit Orpheus' description or just did not suit my standards for Orpheus since we did a puppet show on his story.

The transition of the scenes, like I said, wasn't well done, most especially on the first few minutes. The introduction of the characters wasn't vivid to me, and made me think hard on who is who, or which is which. Something that was off too was that their animation for the gods, Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon were poorly made. Their faces always zoomed in and out, which made them look more comedic, rather than to look scary and powerful.

As to the sound engineering of the movie, I hadn't had much problems with it, as each sound effect was suitable for each scene, like stormy sounds when Zeus was angry and wanted to trouble Jason.

Being left with that, I'll move on it's cinematography. The setting, like deserts, temples, and etc..., showed that it really was from the olden times. Lighting made it also feel old and neutral.

But even with the movie's shortcomings, it was somehow able to tell the story well, and I could also recommend it to people who are to lazy to read his story. This movie could be for people who are more enthusiastic in watching something rather than reading from something.