Review of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) by Vidyabum — 22 Oct 2021

Having watched 25 Bonds from Dr.No to Skyfall, I place this one at 15/25.

It's the first movie in the franchise that I consider to actually be worth watching, which is not saying much. I'll be honest and say that The Spy Who Loved Me is extremely on the edge of my personal cutoff point between "rather good" and "rather bad".

In a one sentence review, it's an entirely mediocre movie with few to no real good elements and few real weaknesses, particularly its main villain and its main romance plot point.

In length, Moore started off on a terrible foot. Playing a prancing, smiling, ever-cheeky aristocrat that didn't at all felt like an agent in danger, his first outing was one of the worst films in the series. In its sequel, Man with the Golden Gun, EON tried to reverse the awful results of the first one by making it one of the darkest and most vicious movies, forcing him into a much more serious Bond.

The Spy Who Loved Me is the first Moore where his footing was neither his old role, neither a fabrication. It's the first time where the shoes of Connery have been replaced, fully, by Moore's new shoes. The first "proper" Moore Bond, with its brand of comedy, lightheartedness, and somewhat cheap wit.

Beyond even the last 2 movies, Bond had been more or less in crisis since 10 years. The last "proper" movie with an actor that did the part harkens back to You Only Live Twice, a decade prior. Amateur actors, unwanted jobs by Connery (Diamonds are Forever) and a very ill-fitting Moore were all we had from 1967 to 1977.

In this regard, Spy is an important movie in the history of James Bond, as it finally completes an extremely long and painful transition of styles, actors, and eras.

However, that is the most important, and only thing that is purely positive to say.

The Spy Who Loved Me is an utterly mediocre movie. Its villain has a plan that is just as nonsensical, thoughtless, and pointless, as it is ridiculous. Bond always had those grandiose villains with absurd beliefs, but here it's not absurd in grandiose, it's just absurd in how empty it is. Sadly, the actor had real presence, but his lines and actions sound so false, his character falls apart entirely. His death is also absolutely ridiculous and poorly filmed.

Besides having a foe with the impact of a paper plane, this movie relies on a romance between Bond and a Soviet agent. The problems with that are everywhere:

- Chemistry is completely absent, they just do not have any kind of credibility.

- Personality is also absent, they just smile to each other a lot, it feels like a bad romance crammed in a terribly written action movie, it's Star Wars 2 tier.

- The plot of the romance is shooting itself in the foot with a rocket:

At the intro sequence, Bond kills someone. We later learn that man to be the lover of the Soviet agent. Bond and Soviet girl meet, and start their very fake romance. Sometime during the movie, she learns that he was her boyfriend's killer, and we get to see poor Moore try to act like a murderer that only does it for duty (about as credible as a teletubby teaching a seduction class). She swears that when the mission is done, she'll kill him in revenge.

At the end of the mission, Bond goes to save Soviet girl from the villain, without a real reason, since the villain's ploy has been foiled, so he's literally saving the enemy that swore to kill him, but I guess he's being noble.

After he saves her, she pulls a gun on him. He then...offers champagne with a typical (bad) Bond witticism. She kisses him and murdering her lover is all forgiven I guess.

Now if the romance wasn't so poorly portrayed, or written, or anything, maybe this could have been an interesting plot.

But starting off with a giant revenge, and with two actors that couldn't make a credible romance, bad lines, bad wits, and a generally very weak story and chemistry...it's an outright disaster. The Spy Who Loved Me relies on this romance for about 40% of its plot and story, and it is really, really poor.

The movie gets a pass for being a typical Moore, with the amusing addition of Richard Kiel as the memorable Jaws, who returned in Moonraker and had a better job there. It's a generally fun and alright Moore movie, but it is in my opinion the first and weakest of his good ones.