King Pelias murders King Aristo to usurp the throne of Thessaly; Aristo’s son Jason seeks vengeance for his father. Through divine invention, Jason encounters Pelias but doesn’t recognize him. On the other hand, Pelias knows exactly who Jason is. Pelias can’t kill Jason (for mythological mumbo-jumbo reasons), so he encourages Jason to embark on an impossible quest for the Golden Fleece, hoping a journey “to the end of the world” will be his doom. Jason assembles a crew of Greece’s finest athletes, including Hercules, and commissions a sturdy vessel, the Argo. Jason and the Argonauts embark on their voyage. Along the way, they face colossal foes and mythical beasts. The group must rely on their strength, cunning, and some help from the god Hera. Finally, the group reaches Colchis, the kingdom of the Golden Fleece. The Colchis High Priestess Medea falls in love with Jason and leads him to the Fleece. Once in his hands, Jason must fight his way out of Colchis, swashbuckling with skeletons, and—the movie ends there.
I liked “Jason and the Argonauts”. It was very entertaining, and reminded me of a good episode of the original Star Trek, with improved production values. I especially loved the intervention of the gods, watching from Mount Olympus. The obvious star of the film (and what attracted me to the watch) was Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion animation monsters. Harryhausen didn’t invent the form (I remember being relatively convinced and impressed with the animation in “King Kong”), but he was prolific in the medium and shepherded the form into color and the proto-blockbuster. And that’s what this film was. Like a CGI heavy action flick today, this film was as much about the effects shots as it was the story. The most impressive sequence was the finale fight with 7 fully animated skeletons. It was definitely worth the price of admission. There were a few other moments where I thought “that’s really clever!” There were also shots that haven’t aged as well, but I don’t hold that against the film.
That said, my only real critique is that the film just—ends. Act 1 sets up a struggle between Jason and King Pelias. It’s personal and features interesting rules of engagement. The Golden Fleece is just a tool (a MacGuffin, really), to aid Jason in his fight. And yet, once he obtains it, the film ends! Maybe in 1963, the average viewer knows their Greek Mythology and knows where the plot's going? It felt like the real story driver wasn’t the search for the fleece, but the conflict for Tessaly. Seeing the “big story” and then being told “actually, the little story was all that matters” felt a little—Game of Thronesey.