Jason & The Argonauts

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The intrepid Jason leads the Argonauts on a quest for the fabled Golden Fleece during which he must brave all manner of dangers and face a host of terrifying foes - including the seven-headed Hydra, fighting skeletons, bloodthirsty Harpies and the invincible colossus, Talos. Harryhausen breathes life into Talos--a bronze giant inspired by the Colossus of Rhodes, who dominates the screen with such grandeur that in 2004 Empire magazine listed it as the second best movie monster of all time after King Kong. Ultimately, the compromise benefits the viewer as we get to see slightly more of the original frame. Includes an 80-page book with essays by film experts Kim Newman and Tim Lucas, an in-depth oral history on all three films and full film credits.

The only real offender is a shot of Medea recovering aboard the Argo, where we can see the Argonauts rowing through the wicker screen behind her. That sequence isn't as dark and murky looking as the Criterion laserdisc release which frankly always looked to me like someone simply turned down the brightness setting for that scene but it is obvious now that it's supposed to be night time in contrast to the dvd release. DTS-HD Master Audio, English Mono with English subtitles and English captions for the hearing impaired. Colors can be pretty rich and vibrant--especially the deep crimsons of the actors' cloaks and the greenery of plant life--and whites can look phenomenal. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.But, one of the coolest treats is seeing the concept art and test footage Harryhausen made for his interpretation of H. I need to either see the Criterion LD again or hear from someone who has it to ascertain just how this transfer differs, or doesn't differ, in terms of those day-for-night sequences, but there is no doubt that this Blu-ray version is considerably better than anything other than the Criterion transfer. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH).

The tale has something to do with Jason traveling to the very ends of the Earth for a sweater (or is that the golden fleece) to somehow reclaim his throne - and the film ends without much resolution actually - but that's not the point.Plus we get two commentaries which, when combined with the solo Ray Harryhausen commentary I have kept from the Criterion laser disc, offer an incredible amount of technical information. Not in the slightest, but this is, hands down, the absolute best presentation of this film ever released on home video, even if it's still a touch flawed. And to complicate things a little further, this is the type of film that probably appears to have a whole lot more than it really does.

Even though the stop-motion effects may not win over younger audiences, Harryhausen's work is an influential steppingstone in cinematic history and is still impressive even today. Unfortunately most of the stop motion sequences have this problem, and the issues are actually made worse by the clarity of Blu-ray, notably as this contrasts so much with the other scenes.

Likewise, optical shots are always softer than original photography, although many of the sodium-vapor traveling mattes created in England are nearly perfect. And the film will probably have its fresh fans who'll look upon the old film as a stale, dusty beast – unworthy of its classic status. Just a week after Harryhausen turns ninety years old, Sony finally brings to Blu-ray the film Harryhausen himself considers his greatest achievement--the Greek mythological adventure 'Jason and the Argonauts. But nefarious foes await Jason and his able crew as monsters, both man and magical, are out to stop him before he reaches his destination. As an added bonus, Sony has also included the film's original mono mix for purists not wishing to experience the 5.

If you know anything about these old Harryhausen films, you know that they don't, no matter what you do to the print, or how you transfer it, look anywhere near the standards by which many designate hi-definition. One other thing if you have children they will love this story of good over evil, just pure fantasy at its best!Whoever oversaw production of the Criterion laser disc of the movie saw that these sequences had been improperly reproduced for video since the initial VHS presentation, and the two sequences had always before been trabsferred as though they were daylight sequences. Jackson has always been a terrific commentator and his enthusiasm and passion for the films of Ray Harryhausen, coupled with that of Cook's, make for absolutely compulsive listening.