Moonraker Plot, The

Moonraker is proof that sometimes too much of good thing is just.... well, too much.

In essence, Moonraker is a remake of extremely successful THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, just made even bigger....
Move the plot from the Ocean to Space, add more gadgets, more humor, more Bond Babes, more winking at the camera... and oh yeah, more Jaws... and you have a movie that went too far for most audiences to follow.

But MusicEd's fan edit corrects many of these missteps, and brings the over the top tone back down to Earth. Most of the cuts worked for me and the audio work is fairly impressive though I did not agree with every choice. For me the greatest achievement of this edit is Jaws is restored to being a menacing figure instead of comedic fodder, and I applaud Ed for this -- Bravo!

If you are a fan of the Roger Moore Bond era, I think this is a must see adventure, as this fan edit could easily be titled MOONRAKER REDEEMED!

Thanks for the fun Ed!

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.

I always thought Moonraker was silly, but when rewatching it before seeing Skyfall I realized that the plot was solid, and that it was a good representation of what espionage in (1970s) space would be like. All that needed to be done was to, well, remove Roger Moore from it. Since that's not possible, this is the next best thing. Well done.

OK - Not bad at all. You turned one of the sillier Bond films into a fairly capable thriller. With all of the silly quips and puns removed, Bond comes off as a fairly stoic tough guy secret agent. Although the movie does devolve into a mutant crossbreed between Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (the TV one, with Gil Gerard) and Austin Powers, this is no fault of the editor and I believe he did the best he could with the crappy hand he was dealt. I also felt the pacing was very slow, especially near the end. I doubt that this is the editor's fault either, but I have not watched the original recently to compare. The cable car re-score and sound effects felt a little unnatural and noticeable to me.

All in all great job saving a dog. It is one that I would probably watch again.

This is a tough one for me. As a Bond fan I can enjoy all eras of 007 - including even the so-called "cheesy" Roger Moore period. So, whilst I fully acknowledge that Moonraker took it to the extreme (double taking pigeons anyone?), the one thing which always kept me entertained was Moore's one-liners. He's the best at delivering them and I have to say that the amount which have been cut in the edit is a little disappointing (and not just Moore's humorous quips are gone - some others too from other characters are sorely missing). However, the purpose of this edit is to cut back on as much as the over the top style nature of the piece as possible, so in that musiced certainly succeeds.

Most of the visual edits work a treat, but audio-wise I feel this is a bit less consistent. The added music is at times somewhat ill-fitting (the cable car fight just doesn't work for me) and the replaced key-entry beep sound effects are way too loud. Perhaps a small criticism, but I really think this could have been caught by musiced when he was checking the edit back and adjusted.

By far the best piece of this edit is the much discussed speed boat chase. Very nicely done and the use of White Knight from David Arnold's Tomorrow Never Dies actually works a treat. I'm not sure I would have totally removed Jaws from the scene though, as when Bond meets him soon after, Jaws is clearly soaked through and we have no idea why.

I'm also not sure of cutting the "space battle". As over the top as the scene is, there's some terrific model work going on and the outlandish nature of that scene is so much fun. I was also surpised to see what is probably the worst product placement in Bond history left totally intact (7-up, Marlboro and British Airways all in the space a few frames).

However, I did have fun watching the edit. On the whole it's well edited and does present what it sets out to achieve in making a more serious, less cheesy take on Moonraker. Maybe I just like my Moore a little more humorous and cheesy than other people do?