Moonraker Plot, The

A very enjoyable, successful effort to give some dignity to what used to be the silliest, most problematic 007 film (before DAD). The edits were well chosen, giving the film a much smoother narrative flow and making it easier to enjoy what is still one of the most beautifully filmed Bond entries. I always liked Barry's strangely languid score so the music changes weren't essential, but they're pulled off here nicely. Definitely recommended.

I liked this a lot; MusicEd921 has done a really good job putting this together and removing some of the more frustrating elements of the movie;
A few notes
1. I've actually had this for an age and kept forgetting to watch it; glad I finally got round to it; definitely worth it
2. I have 2 minor quibbles; Firstly the editing of Corinne's death; that's one fo the darkest scenes in the movie and is beautifully scored by Barry; I would have liked to have seen that stay
Secondly; I love the editing of the boat chase and don't mind the removal of the 007 theme, but would have liked another Barry piece in it's place, as good as Arnolds work on TND is, the style just doesn't fit as well as a Barry piece would've..

These are minor quibbles over what was an excellent edit;
I should also add, I love Moonraker, it's actually one of my fave Bond pics, but I absolutely think that it suffers from the overuse of humor/silliness that damaged a number of Moore's Bond pics (and Diamonds Are Forever as well)

Good work MusicEd921!!

Very cool! As has been said, Moonraker isn't one of the better Bond films and even in an excellently edited version like this, it isn't one of the better Bond films. I first saw this in a theater when I was 11 (so much cleavage and never a nipple! The 007 franchise slogan).
This edit strips away a lot of what was wrong with the original. I couldn't tell you anything I didn't like about this edit. Drax makes for a very good Bond villain. Jaws isn't exactly menacing, but he is as close to it as possible in this version. Everything you did worked. I wasn't sure exactly where you changed music (except where you stated it was changed in the cable car fight) but the music during the speedboat chase was excellent also. There was one tiny thing that stood out: the keypad sound was a little too loud, I thought. Not exactly a big deal, but looking for flaws in this isn't easy.
I don't know what else to say except I think you basically saved this movie (as much as can be done). You should tackle Octopussy.
Recommended to all 007 fans! Easily replaces the original cut. So glad I got finally see this one.

It is true that the original Moonraker is one of the cheesiest Bond films of all. It structurally copies the successful formula of The Spy Who Loved Me but pushes it into a campy and ridiculous excess that deflates the whole endeavor. MusicEd921 has trimmed the excess and has rescued this film. By removing the silly Jaws love affair, the comedy schtick and boring "Star Wars a la John Barry" space battle, he has given us an elegant and worthy follow up to The Spy Who Loved Me. Only minor criticism is that you could have edit out Moore's appearance in gondolier outfit and cut to the close up where he breaks in after removing the silly hat since you edit out the gondola chase sequence. Overall the definite "go to" version of Moonraker.

I really enjoyed this Moonraker edit. It really displays how great of a Bond movie this was and easily my favorite of Roger Moore's outings. This will easily replace the version of the movie I have on my shelf. Almost all of the silliness has been removed or corrected.

Most of the rescoring was a nice touch but one scene really stands out as having been hurt by this treatment. The cable car fight seems much weaker with the new score. The music does not really enhance the battle and the editing has made it so that all of the fight punching and hitting sound effects sound like they were recorded from a pachinko machine. This was unfortunate because when I looked at the original quickly on Youtube it seemed like this scene would have been better without the changes.

It also seemed extremely unusual at the end of the movie for the space station to break out in a laser fight without any mention of laser weapon technology before that point. It would have been OK if only the bad guys had lasers as they were obviously developing advanced technology but then the cavalry charges in and they all have lasers as well. I think it was a big mistake to cut out the scene where Q Branch is testing the military laser technology at the MI6 monastery, without this scene Moonraker really loses all remaining credibility right at the home stretch.

Regardless I was thoroughly impressed and greatly enjoyed the new film. I especially like that you've restored Jaws rightful place as one of the best Bond villains. I would recommend this edit and definitely watch it again.