Bond In Orbit and Under the Sea

Moonraker should have been the best entry in the Bond series to date, but unfortunately it was sabotaged by the script. There is often a fine line between witty and witless and Christopher Wood's screenplay was mostly on the wrong side of the line. The jokes were unusually tasteless and the handling of the character "Jaws" was like something out of a bad comic book.

Visually Moonraker was gorgeous, but, unfortunately, the sound mixing made it easy to hear the dialog. The idea of a madman wanting to kill off Earth's population, except for certain "genetically superior" specimens was old hat in Science Fiction but offered possibilities. The visual effects of the space station and battle in space were stunning. So you definitely had the good and the bad here.

"Jaws", introduced in The Spy Who Loved Me and played by Richard Kiel was another of the almost superhuman henchmen loved by the fans, but here he walked away from events that no human could survive. All that was missing was the blue tights with red cape ensemble. Jaws falls thousands of feet without a parachute, walking away after collapsing a circus tent. He survives another fall in Rio and finds love. Eventually, he turns to the right side of the force and aids the good guys.

John Barry delivered another excellent score but for some reason interpolates Elmer Bernstein's theme from The Magnificent Seven. Cinematography and special effects are excellent. Almost everything was here to create a masterpiece of the action genre, but a good script.

This film was Bernard Lee's final appearance as "M", Bond's boss. He died in 1981.

Fortunately, the next Bond film, For Your Eyes Only, more than made up for Moonraker's blunders. The script by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson was back on track and avoided most of the silliness that was infecting the series. Gadgets were held to a minimum and there was some good suspense. And Roger Moore got to show he could do the hard-edged Bond, dispatching of the villain Locque. Carole Bouquet was a charming heroine and deadly with a crossbow. Other casting choices were also good. Bill Conti's score, although not up to John Barry's standards, was good with an excellent theme song sung by Sheena Easton.

More, and greater changes, were to come over the next few years. But For Your Eyes Only remains my favorite of the Roger Moore Bond films.