• Episode 1
• Episode 2

Jason learns from a centaur that he is a rightful king dispossessed by an evil uncle who holds his mother in thrall. He journeys back to his homeland to face his death, but instead finds himself on a quest to the end of the earth in order to gain the golden fleece, the only thing that can save his mother from death. Along the way there are dangers both mortal and supernatural.

So beloved is the great Ray Harryhausen film of JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS that it is a brave person who takes on the remake and sadly the opening of this two parter shows exactly why. The story has everything that you could look for in a Greek myth - there are lost kingdoms, sea voyages, gods and monsters - and yet it proves to be rather dull and unexciting.

It doesn't help that the main character is played by a pretty boy with little skill or depth. In fact Jason London seems to have only his first name and his 'pleasant face' to recommend him for the role. Around that central hole there are more much more capable actors such as Dennis Hopper's evil king, David Calder's shipbuilder Argos, Natasha Henstridge being gorgeous in a role that requires her to, well, to be gorgeous, Olivia Williams and Angus McFayden as the fickle gods and Derek Jacobi who is utterly wasted as the blind seer Phineas.

The main problem here is the unfocussed script that never really manages to get all the elements to gel together. It starts off well with a great sacking of the city sequence that sets up the plot, but then Jason ambles around a bit, gathering together a crew of mismatched folk each with a great 'talent' which is then barely used or commented on afterwards. Zeus and Hera keep popping up in the clouds (an imagery that really never works) and prove to be immense distractions, whilst the threats created by a giant rock man in the ocean, the sirens who want to kill their guests (not turn them into pigs) and the clashing rocks (here 'black rocks') are all pretty unimpressive. The only standout moment is the battle with the harpies in the temple of food. The creatures are quite well realised and make up for the very poor CGI centaur that appears for no good reason early on to tell Jason the plot.

Then the story keeps flashing off to Colchis where a seer (Jolene Blalock from STAR TREK ENTERPRISE) keeps warning a prince (James Callis from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) that Jason is on the way. This will probably come to something in the second episode, but it just distracts in this one.

This is a fun myth and so it's surprising that the adaptation here is so missing in fun, in liveliness, in a sense of the joy of being. The second half is going to have to really come up with something special to make this even remotely memorable.

Episode 2