How others will see it. Action, adventure, gadgets, stunts, explosions, babes, villains, romance, etc. Almost anyone who has seen a movie has seen a James Bond movie, and knows what to expect. If empty-minded escape is your mission, and you choose to accept it, you likely won't be disappointed.
As for the rest of us, we gave up on the Bond franchise long ago, once their budgets exceeded that of most third world nations. Bigger is not always better. More on this later.
How I felt about it. In a way, The Spy Who Loved Me was ahead of its time. The Yankees and Russians become allies, just as they would be some years later, to fight the mutual threat of terrorism. Only the joint enemy isn't extremist Arabs, but an arrogant blueblood who wants to nuke world cities.
The trouble is, we've seen this basic premise before in Bond movie. So much so, in fact, that they all blend together. Each movie substitutes a different madman, a different henchman, and a different (but always supermodel-worthy) woman to be conquered by Bond, who is also interchangeable.
Misguided fans debate which Bond is best (Sean Connery's name invariably tops Roger Moore). But the key differences between initial Bond entries and those that followed are the story, the budget, and the character of Bond himself.
Ian Fleming was the author who created James Bond, and gave him life through his books. Bond was a very good agent, but not perfect, and his missions were important, but not spectacular. The films lost their way after Goldfinger, because each Bond film had to top the last. Bigger stunts, explosions, and adventures. Bond evolved to keep up, and become infallible.
In The Spy Who Loved Me, the crafty yet incredibly stupid madman Stromberg (Jurgens) asks Bond to identify an exotic species of fish. After the appropriate dramatic pause, Bond rattles off its latin name and key characteristics. He's too good. And the requisite action is never convincing, since we know Bond will win both the battle and the war. Methinks he should lose more battles, and Fleming believed this, too.
The silliness peaks when Stromberg receives Bond and Bach, knows them to dangerous spies, yet waits until they are safely back on shore before dispatching iron-mouthed Kiel to kill them. When he again has Bond within his grasp, he again doesn't kill him. Instead, he reveals his plans (!) to them, then sends him off under nominal guard. The formula is preposterous, yet repeats every few years with the next costly, yet perfunctory production.