Ricky Church continues his countdown to Spectre with a review of Moonraker…
In 1979 the Bond franchise took a turn to science fiction as Bond ventured into space for his adventure in Moonraker. Though he had previously investigated space programs or fought against space lasers, he had never before gone into outer space. Why did the franchise decide to veer in such a sci-fi direction? Well, it has a little something to do with a small 1977 film you may have heard of called Star Wars.
Due to Star Wars being a surprise financial and critical success, sci-fi reemerged as a popular film genre and made many studios eager to produce a sci-fi film. Rather than film For Your Eyes Only, announced at the end of Spy Who Loved Me, producer Albert Broccoli decided to do Moonraker instead to get in on the sci-fi bandwagon. What resulted was a disjointed film that, much like Diamonds Are Forever or Man with the Golden Gun, is much too campy to be taken seriously. This is especially a shame since The Spy Who Loved Me was such a great Bond film.
Bond’s investigation of a missing American space shuttle leads him to the shuttle’s creator Hugo Drax, whose true purpose is to exterminate the human race and create a master race on his space station before repopulating Earth. It’s largely a retread of Spy Who Loved Me’s plot, only with different locations, events and villains. Because of this, the film isn’t wholly original, a fact that is especially disappointing considering the film deviates so much from the original novel’s plot, a far superior Bond adventure.
Moore gives a good performance as Bond and, despite the campy elements that surround him, doesn’t give in to his usual cheesy quips nearly as much as he does in the other films. However, the cast surrounding Moore is not that interesting. Holly Goodhead (yes, that is her name), an undercover CIA agent, makes an okay partner for Bond, but ultimately their relationship lacks the dynamic between many other Bond girls. Even their playful rivalry isn’t as compelling as that of Anya, Tracy or Pussy. Actress Lois Chiles does fine in the role, but not enough to make her stand out.
Michael Lonsdale gives a cold performance as Hugo Drax. He seems the right amount of unemotional to wipe out a whole species, but he lacks any charm to draw viewers completely in. He doesn’t even hide the fact that he’s evil, opting instead to, rather obviously, assassinate Bond right from the start (a task he and his minions fail at several times). Unlike Stromberg, his motivation is purely to declare himself ruler of the planet rather than for the greater good, making him purely one-note.
What also harms the film is, once again, a lot of campiness. From the various silly assassination attempts on Bond to the cheesy looking special effects (at least by today’s standards) in the space battle, there’s a lot of camp to be found here. Even Jaws, who was an imposing presence in Spy, is relegated to a comic relief in Moonraker as he leads many of the failed assassination attempts and has a sudden moment of redemption due to a love story between him and one of Drax’s chosen women. Try as much as they might to ground the film in reality, it comes undone long before Bond enters space.
There are really only three impressive aspect of the whole film. The first is the opening sequence of Bond skydiving without a parachute, engaging in a mid-air fight with a pilot and Jaws to reclaim one. The scene was actually shot in the air and took a record 88 skydives to complete and remains one of the best openings for a Bond film yet. Its unfortunate the rest of the film wasn’t nearly as impressive. The other two aspects is the great design of many of the sets, particularly Drax’s space station, by longtime Bond production designer Ken Adams and Bernard Lee’s final performance as Bond’s boss M. Unfortunately after this film, Lee died of lung cancer, bringing to a close a small but pivotal role he made popular for 17 years.
Moonraker suffers from the campiness, but more than that it suffers from the desire to place Bond in a sci-fi element when its been proven he’s much more intriguing when on the ground. It is certainly one the lesser Bond films and has little entertainment value due to its constant silliness. It was, however, a good reminder that James Bond works much better when he’s a little closer to reality than science fiction.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★/ Movie: ★
Ricky Church
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=Hmyh_bg7NJc
Originally published October 15, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
