Review Detail

9.5 5 10
moonrakerunloved_front
FanFix March 28, 2022 1867
Overall rating
 
9.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
This was a well done and certainly interesting approach to one of the weaker Bond films. An approach in which I found a lot to admire, and admire highly, but at the same time certain aspects didn't really work fully for me. First, the positives: I absolutely loved how Poor Andin solved two key terrible scenes from the original: the gondola chase and Jaws helping Bond at the end. For the former, a way has been found to keep the reasonably grounded parts and remove the whole hovercraft silliness, and is a way that's as simple as it is clever. For the latter, what was done is simply genius. I myself could only come up with a much darker fate for Jaws back in the day (for MusicEd's edit), but I wish I had thought of this. It manages to both remove Dolly from the scene and allow Jaws his redemption. And without clumsy reframings, at that.

Now, what didn't work for me? While I think the new placement of the original Jaws opening works fine by itself, it now presents the problem of having two overly similar action scenes in a row, which compromises the pacing and gives that segment more of an action montage feel than a proper cinematic flow. Then, there's the Dolly factor: her central scenes have been removed but for some reason she's still there, holding hands with Jaws all through the third act. Can't really understand this decision, cutting her out completely would have been easy and she wouldn't come out of nowhere for any potential first time viewers. Also, there are a few further silly bits I would have preferred to lose (the likes of "Play it again, Sam").

I am a bit ambivalent about the new opening credits song. Part of me likes it and considers it a fun alternative, but another part feels like it just lacks the John Barry "Bond sound". I thought it worked better as the trailer music than as the actual film theme. Your mileage may of course vary on this.

Technically, it's very well done except for the volume level of the piece used to replace the Magnificent Seven one. I though it was way too loud. The rest of the edit was excellently executed.

As I stated, much to recommend here, and what works, works great. I have yet to see the LS cut, but at this point I tend to think that taking the gondola chase and Jaws redemption from this and putting them in the MusicEd cut would pretty much make what I envision as the ideal version of Moonraker. Definitely worth the watch.
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