Moonraker (1979)

Genre

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Director

Lewis Gilbert

Country

UK | France | USA

Cast

Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Toshiro Suga, Richard Kiel, Corinne Cléry, Bernard Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Desmond Llewelyn, Lois Maxwell, Emily Bolton, Michael Marshall, Walter Gotell, Blanche Ravalec

Storyline

A spaceship is mysteriously hijacked and James Bond (Roger Moore) must work quickly to find out who is behind it all.

Opinion

"Wonderful girl. Either I'm going to kill her or I'm beginning to like her." I know, James Bond didn't say it, it was Han Solo. But I don't see the point of not quoting Han Solo since this 007 flick tries so hard to be Star Wars. And that's a huge problem. 

Given the outcome of "The Spy Who Loved Me", I was expecting a lot more from this because of the same director, and the same (in part) cast. Unfortunately, "Moonraker" is a huge misfire, and while James Bond reaches space following the Star Wars trend, the series crashes into an asteroid.

The plot is so dumb and nonsense the only thought of it makes my head hurt. Once again James Bond must save the world, but this time, like I've already said a million of times, it happens in space. And it is as bad as it sounds. This Drax wants to destroy life on Earth and breed a generation of perfect people in a space station under his rule, and in order to do that, he builds his own spaceship to go into outer space to hijack a spaceship. Does it make any sense to you?

If there's something this film is good at is killing suspense. I mean, what a better way to do it than showing from the start who the mastermind behind this evil plan is? Luckily the intimidating henchman Jaws returns, but the plot developments pretty much destroy the character.

The action sequences are laughable re-workings of previous films and they often portray more violence than necessary. Also the humour isn't neither pulled off, the characters are as thin as paper, and the sets are taken straight out of Star Trek. 

Roger Moore seems lost, probably because the plot has confused him too, and he is just not there. Michael Lonsdale is bland and a completely menace-free villain, but at least Richard Kiel does a quite good job as Jaws. Bernard Lee is given a bit more for his last time around, but he deserved a better film.

I guess the main drive behind the film was to earn money and popularity in the same way "Star War: A New Hope" did two years earlier. It just didn't pay off.