Moonraker Plot, The

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.

Moonraker edited by MusicEd921

Confession first. I always liked this film. Not because it was a great Bond film, but because it was a great “bad” film.
The lavish amount of money tossed at such stupidity remains mind-boggling.

OK, wow, what an alteration.
Moonraker now resembles an actual Bond film. Not top tier, but respectable.
The most noticeable plot restructuring was the minimizing of Jaws. And Dolly! (Whom I kinda missed since I always had the most lurid fantasies about her Swiss Miss kink.)
To my mind, other sequences could have been truncated, but the timing would fall to 90” which most would find too brief for Bond.
Video editing seemed smooth, with no choppy cuts or abrupt jumps.
No problems with any sound.
Recommended to 007 fans, even those who disliked this outing.

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.

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.

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!