Clever Effects, Clunky Acting in ‘Jason and the Argonauts’

It’s ironic that as a society we are armed with the most technologically advanced forms of communication ever devised by science and yet we sometimes employ them in the telling of tales that are thousands of years old. We’re back sitting around a campfire and listening to stories of danger, magic and derring-do.

All kinds of digital gadgetry and computerized special effects have been put to work on NBC’s “Jason and the Argonauts,” a mishmash of Greek mythology that parades myriad monsters and beasties before us as the hero, Jason, searches for the Golden Fleece. The two-part, four-hour film airs Sunday and Monday at 9 both nights.

A film of the same title was made once before with the legendary Ray Harryhausen supplying the special effects.

But the problem that plagued Harryhausen’s technique, especially in color films, was that it was anything but seamless. You didn’t have to be discerning to tell where the miniature monster ended and the real beings began. Modern-day digital effects have greatly improved on the illusion, erased the seam and made miraculous visions commonplace.

Thus in NBC’s “Jason” we see a centaur casually clop-clopping across a field, fiendish batlike harpies divebomb Jason and his men, and Poseidon rising to tremendous heights from the sea after being mistaken for a large island.

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All very clever, all very accomplished, and that figures since the film is from producers Robert Halmi Sr. and Jr., who now seem to turn out half the miniseries on TV, especially the ones involving fantastic tales from the past. As in some of the previous Halmi productions, the problem with “Jason” is not with the invented creatures but with the human actors, particularly sullen Jason London, who stars as the Jason of the title.

Has there ever been an action hero more listless and mopey? London sulks through the movie with no sense of adventure whatsoever. Every challenge is a chore. There’s much talk of him finding his destiny, fulfilling his destiny, everything but dusting his destiny, but London doesn’t look like he has time for a destiny. He looks like he wants to go home.

Other actors involved include Dennis Hopper as the utterly evil King Pelias; Frank Langella as the rather evil King Aeetes; Jolene Blalock as Medea, a wily sorceress with silly eye makeup; and young Adrian Lester as Orpheus, who comes along on the voyage chiefly to play his harp and lay down a few tunes.

Writers Matthew Faulk and Mark Skeet are also a bit too enchanted with the gods, and director Nick Willing keeps panning up to heaven so we can witness the gods squabbling and indulging in petty jealousies. But there’s too much of them and they seem never to shut up.

There’s also a great deal of violence back on Earth, but it isn’t dwelled upon. And these are, after all, violent tales. If you like this sort of thing, “Jason and the Argonauts” is a good example of it. If you don’t, you will be bored within an inch of your life.

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* “Jason and the Argonauts” airs Sunday and Monday at 9 p.m. on NBC. The network has rated it TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14).