Jack Hunter

Greetings, you Treasure and Antiquity Seekers! 

Good to have you back!  I hope you're ready for adventure because this time we're talking about the Jack Hunter miniseries.  I believe this debuted on the Syfy Channel (but don't quote me on that) around New Year 2008-2009.  

These three episodes run about an hour and a half each, forming a single, all-encompassing story arc.  First is "Jack Hunter and the Lost Treasure of Ugarit".."  Here we meet Jack Hunter, jaded and cynical archaeologist, on a mission to photograph a tablet in a private collection in Paris.  A bad run-in with a security guard smashes his camera, so he takes the entire tablet.

His friend and mentor believe this tablet holds a riddle that leads to a long-lost Ugaritic treasure.  Jack thinks it's a bunch of hooey and refuses to get involved until someone kills his mentor.  Before his death, the mentor marked a spot on a map, and this leads Jack to Syria, where he is joined by Nadia Ramadan from a local antiquities institute (she and Jack hate each other right away, so you know they end up together by the end of the series) and Tariq, a driver/tour/guide provided by some tourism bureau.

The main opposition is a rival archaeologist named Littman, who is working for the Russian Mafia.  There are other bad guys, too...but I don't even remember who they were supposed to be.  Some weird secret society that's still around from ancient times...they worship the magical staff that is part of the Treasure.

There were foot chases, car chases (Tariq is supposed to be their driver, but somehow every time Jack drives, there turns out to be a car chase...go figure!).   There are some caves and ancient ruins and weird ancien traps.  Anyway, all this leads to the staff.

What staff?  Oh yeah, there's this magic staff.  It's the first of a two-part ancient superweapon.  The weapon is called the Eye, and the Staff is the Iris.  It's a solar-powered magic staff that shoots a laser beam.  The secret society is trying to keep everyone away from it.

But they blew it.  Everyone gets to the temple where it's kept, and--of course--Littman gets it by the end of the first movie!  

But that's ok because we're not done yet!  We move to part two, "Jack Hunter and the Quest for Akhenaten's Tomb."  See, there's a second part to the superweapon.  It's called the Star of Heaven, and it attaches to the orb at the top of the staff, and...no one's quite sure what it does.  But Littman is after it, so we have to stop him!

Our heroes believe that the Star of Heaven was captured by the forces of the Pharaoh Akhenaten and hidden away in Egypt, so that's we they go next.  

More political intrigue, more ancient mysteries, another secret society.  But it turns out that the Star of Heaven is not here because thousands of years ago, the Romans looted the place and moved the entire treasure, but left a pair of Roman coins on the eyes of the Pharaoh.  Oh yeah, and we fail to get the Staff away from Littman!

But we're not through yet; we still have "Jack Hunter and the Star of Heaven."  This time there's a trail of private collectors that our heroes must follow to eventually find the Star.  And of course, Littman gets it, and we have to get it back before he can turn it over to the Russian Mafia...or is that even his true intention?  I won't spoil it, just in case you want to check it out for yourself.

So, how was it?  Well...it was okay.  The mystery and intrigue really weren't so bad.  They make the mistake of dressing the hero up in a way that reminds you of Indiana Jones, and I think that was a bad idea.  Jack Hunter is NO Indiana Jones.  

As I said, the plot is okay.  It has all the necessary parts to be something great, and it takes place in the modern world, which helps set it apart from period pieces like Indiana Jones.  However, in my opinion, none of the characters were very likable.  And the story just isn't told in the fun style of Indiana Jones or "The Mummy" with Brendan Fraser.  It's like they wanted all the corny adventure stuff but were hoping to inject verisimilitude and believability...or something.

It was good in its way, it was watchable, and I'm not sorry I watched it.  On the other hand, I'm in no hurry to watch it again.  It just wasn't as much fun as Indy or O'Connell.

But if you want to watch it, I'm sure you can find it on some streaming channel or other; I watched it on YouTube.

Have you seen "Jack Hunter and Lost Treasure of Ugarit"?  If so, tell us what you thought about it in the comments below!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell