I'll keep this simple and without all blathering hoopla about this and that, that my predecessors are most famous for. Although this may prove to be somewhat of a tedious task, given that I'm required to have a minimum of 10 lines! I'm actually shocked that this re-make has nearly 6.0 rating from 3500 viewers, probably all of them worked on the making of this futile attempt. I was forced to give it a 1 out of 10 rating....LOL This re-make attempt is one of the worst I've ever had the displeasure of viewing! Simply put, the 1963 original version "hands down" had stellar acting (with a lesser known English cast) and much better (Ray Harryhausen) special effects.

As a Classics major I can not recommend this movie. It holds no truth to the writings of Apollonius and is another Hollywood recreation of a magnificent Greek Poem. The writers and I call them that loosely stole a great story and changed a classic into a bad tele-novel. This is akin to taking Hamlet, keeping his father alive and Hamlet is just a joyous kid out on a fun adventure. As a Classicist this adaptation disgusts me. If anyone thinks watching this will replace reading the poem then expect a very low grade in your class!!!This is about as far away from the actual story as one could get. The original story is amazing and full of non invented plot twists and turns. The ending is Hollywood at its worst. So sad to see one of Greece's true masterpieces destroyed like this. Note to Hollywood, Why change a story so amazing it has lasted for 2,500 years. To change the story is so sad and just a slap in the face of a wonderful writer.

I guess the reason that I originally bought this DVD was because it was based on an Ancient Greek legend, however I must admit that the text that we have of this (The Argonautica) is pretty average compared to some of the other texts that we have available. However, at least the movie covers more than the 1963 film, though by doing so it sort of throws the film out to something like three hours. Throw in some fairly average acting and you pretty much have what probably amounted to a television mini-series.The story is sort of faithful to the original, though Heracles stays around longer than he does in the book. In the book he gets left behind after one of Jason's stops along the way, nor is he killed. In fact the death of Heracles in this film could not be any further from the truth, since according to legend, Heracles pretty much committed suicide by throwing himself onto his own funeral pyre.I also found the Negro Orpheus to also be a bit far fetched. To me it seemed that this character was the token Negro, which in a sense really does annoy me. Orpheus was a Greek, not a Negro. Not only do they have the token Negro, but they also have the token girl that goes along as well, and nothing of the sort ever happens in the original. In fact Greeks never bothered with token characters, but then because their stories are based on myth, and also because the Greek were pretty racist, and sexist, the thought of having token characters would, to them, have been stupid. If the Greeks wanted to criticise some of their long standing prejudices, then the playwright (or storyteller) would focus on a myth that involved a woman or a foreigner.

Mini-series treatment of the perennial favourite, this is fairly faithful to the original material (the movie I mean, not the ancient Greeks scrolls!) and is admirably played straight throughout, and not overly hammy.The plot is familiar to all I should imagine - to save his mother, Jason is sent on a quest to reclaim the Golden Fleece from an evil tyrant, and the power of said Fleece will allow his mother to be cured.Of course, as with the movie version, this lives and dies by the set-pieces, and they are well handled: Neptune, The Harpies, the skeletons from the dragon's teeth, they're all here and, with the exception of the skeletons, are well done - the skeletons are a bit of a disappointment, it has to be said, but I guess beating the majesty of the originals was always going to be a big ask.Perhaps a shade too long with a three hour running time, it starts to flag towards the end, but this is still an enjoyable romp.