Review of Moonraker (1979) by Raji K — 24 Jan 2014

As the end credits of the Spy Who Loved Me roll, they claim that For Your Eyes Only would be the next Bond film to be made. After the huge success of Star Wars however, Moonraker was put in production to try and capture the excitement of the times with science fiction and space. Moonraker starts off as an expected Bond film with espionage, gadgets and the investigation of a crazy villain. The film then goes a bit crazy with lasers ans science fiction and although somewhat entertaining it does not really work too well for a Bond film. The film really has the same plot as The Spy Who Loved Me in that instead of a villain wishing to eradicate humanity to retreat to the depths of the ocean, he wishes to do the same and retreat into space.

Bond Girl - 3/5.

The actress playing the Bond Girl is of course actractive, and they really tried to keep match The Spy Who Loved Me's Barbara Bach character in having one that was intelligent and could hold her own. Unfortunately just as an actress I felt little to no intensity from her and thought many of her lines were delivered terribly.

Gadgets - 3/5.

The watch blowdart gadet was used quite heavily in this movie, and Bond does not even fire or hold the infamous Walter PPK in this movie which was quite disappointing.

Villains - 3/5.

Jaws returns as a villain and he is the first to do so in any of the Bond movies. He plays the exact same role, except this time he plays the muscle for a Hugo Drax instead. Hugo Drax really was an extension of the last villain with really the only improvement appearing to be that he had more wealth and could play Chopin instead of simply listen to it.

Music 3/5.

Moonraker is beautifully sung by Shirley Bassey who did Goldfinger and Diamonds are Forever. It still is not one of the better songs in the series.