Review of Moonraker (1979) by Kai82 — 23 Dec 2020

The eleventh James Bond movie and the most science fiction inspired one even to date. The producers were influenced by Star Wars and its great commercial success. So it was decided to adapt to this and let parts of the story happen in space.

For comparison: The Ian Fleming novel Moonraker has nothing like this in it and some parts were later used for Goldeneye (An in name only adaptation if you need a label). The story starts when a Moonraker type space-shuttle is stolen in midair from a shuttle carrier aircraft (The carriers exist in real life and are modified Boeing 747s).

James Bond is set to investigate this and starts by asking billionaire Hugo Drax whose Drax Industries build the shuttle for help. His investigations lead him to a much bigger menace. More I wont spoil.

The story is good for franchise standards. It has a lot of good twists and is entertaining. I like the science fiction elements but these are not mandatory for me. The next movies never used these again and I can not say that I missed them nor that I hated them.

The concept and ideas for the plot / menace are really good and the climax is well done. The actors are fine for me. Roger Moore delivers as always. Michael Lonsdale as Hugo Drax is an interesting antagonist.

He is smart, a clever schemer, awfully rich and gets the things done he wants. He is probably in my top 10 James Bond villain list but not in the higher ranks. However Richard Kiel as Jaws is high on the list.

He became a fan favorite in the last movie and returns which is remarkable. He is still intimidating, indestructible and has an engaging smile:-). He gets even some bit of development here and I like also Blanche Ravalec in this regard too.

Some of his best moments are in this movie (circus tent, carnival or cable scene). The humor is also quite remarkable as some of my favorite jokes of the franchise are from this movie (The Eiffel tower joke alone is remembered by every James Bond fan).

Normally I would not point this out in a James Bond movie but the special effects look really good and have aged well for that time. The soundtrack is O.K for me but not remarkable in comparison. Overall it is an enjoyable James Bond movie with great humor and memorable scenes.

Slightly misses my 10/10 rating but I re-watched it quite some time.