I thought this was a very well-done film. Between the acting, the good dialogue, decent special effects and good fight scenes, there's nothing about this film that I didn't love. All the actors did a good job of playing very well-written characters. The fact that this movie was such high quality isn't a surprise considering that it was a trailblazer to the few (unfortunately) flashback episodes of the regular Hercules show which (in my opinion anyway) were MUCH better than the regular show that had the regular, older cast. The `young' episodes showed Herc learning about the world, and said a few things about the pressures he met in life, ****MINOR SPOILERS**** just some of them of him being made fun of because he was looking for true love instead of empty sex, and especially the wartime episode where his platoon was surprised to think that the enemy thought of itself as the 'good guys', just like they did. It was a classic scene of meeting the enemy and having it be a reflection of one's self. Followed that up by a scared expression on young Jason's face when he came across real combat and body parts started flying in every direction, and nightmares that the characters experienced in those precious few episodes, along with a charming friendship between Herc, Iolaus and Jason (all three played much better by the younger actors as opposed to those older, uglier ones) made this story great to watch. From this movie, the scene that stole the already awesome film was when ************SPOILERS*********** Jason's father had been healed by the Golden Fleece, and Aries listens to Jason exclaim how `it's a gift from the gods', and Aries' response is that `gods give, and gods take', before he snaps Jason's father's neck, killing him instantly and then stabbing Jason with a knife in revenge to the trio's adventures that killed his giant creature. Following that scene we have young Herc ordering (or more like screaming at) someone to get the Golden Fleece in an effort to save Jason's life. That one acting scene by Ian Bohen had more intensity in it than most other so-called 'dramatic' scenes that other shows or movies try to achieve and, most of the time, fail to do so. Just don't get me started on how this incredible movie which created several incredible flashback episodes of Hercules : The Legendary Journeys, thus being a spin-off that was way better than the show it was created from, then ended up being a lousy half-hour long Power Rangers clone on Saturday morning, which also brought us some blonde pipsqueak playing the part of young Herc instead of Ian Bohen. I had heard that was the case because Bohen had refused to permanently move to New Zealand to film there. Maybe, or maybe not. But that doesn't explain why the writing went from being better than Hercules and Xena to being worse than them! Either way, that awful show died after one season anyway, which wasn't surprising at all considering it sucked. So all in all, definitely see this movie, and if you're able to find Hercules : The Legendary Journeys as reruns on your TV, also definitely look out for the handful of episodes that this cast was given charge of as the trio are like a classy version of the three musketeers. Just too bad that winning combination was axed soon afterwards. Just another example of Hollywood being an overblown machine that has too much money and not nearly enough creativity within it.

I made the error of buying the DVD of this, so I thought I would write a warning to others to beware. I found modest acting, dialog written in teenage mall slang, lots of tilting and panning camera moves meant to enhance the illusion of excitement, and painfully fractured Greek mythology (since when was the Greek god of war meant to be a scheming villain?). My roommate, his girlfriend and I watched it in a sort of amazed stupor. Ian Bohen is cute, that's about all I can say in its favor.

Ian Bohen is so much better than that annoying blond kid who played Young Herc on the tv show. I would have hated the movie if blondie was in it. The story was pretty good too. The thing I liked the most was that Ares wasn't a wimpy, irritating characther like he is on Hercules and Xena: he's more evil and that's the way I like him. There's also a great fight scene at the end.

The director has created a clan of caricatures who only fleetingly rise to the level of characters. The visual effects are primarily swirling montages and the music track overpowers many scenes. Inclusion of some episodes from the mythological story of Jason and the Golden Fleece leaves this plot merely episodic and confused. It's barely a nice try.