Lonsdale has two henchmen this time around, sneaky Toshiro Suga and metal-mouthed giant Richard Kiel. Approximately every 15 minutes, Bond narrowly escapes death at the hands of these two, in addition to Lonsdale. In between close calls, Bond also seduces three spectacular beauties, Corrine Clery, Emily Bolton, and Lois Chiles. All three are poised, but hopelessly wooden as actresses. Clery and Bolton are also rather meek by today's empowered expectations.
How others will see it. Those enamored with the patented James Bond escapist formula will not care about the film's obvious flaws, such as an enormous private space station in orbit that no government knows about simply because it has a radar jammer. Especially since radar doesn't work in outer space. Lonsdale wants to kill everyone on Earth with a toxin that only kills people but not animals. The problem is, people are animals, and are very close genetically to some species.
How I felt about it. But the implausible nature of the story, which begins with Chiles' character name (Dr. Holly Goodhead?), isn't the real problem the film is faced with.
The producers of Moonraker felt that the movie had to top previous James Bond vehicles, rather than excel them.
In other words, the big budget sets, stunts, and supermodels had to be bigger than ever. Bond on a gondola that also becomes a speedboat and a land vehicle. Bond on a spacecraft with rooms as large as a luxury hotel lobby. No need for character depth, such as a Bond girl with a sense of humor, a Bond villain with an emotional range beyond that of smug refinement, or Bond himself showing evidence of humanity instead of mere prowess. In Moonraker, Bond speaks Italian fluently, no doubt having learned the language in five minutes by memorizing an Italian-English dictionary and grammar book during an interlude between foiling assassins and seducing Ford models.
Moonraker does try to add touches of humor. A bird does a double take as Bond narrowly avoids killing Italian tourists with his souped-up gondola. Richard Kiel gets a dorky-looking girlfriend who looks too young to be legal. (He even gets a three-word speaking line, a rare moment for any Bond henchman). We are not surprised that Kiel and girlfriend turn good and survive. After all, the film is intended as a crowd-pleaser. If only this term meant something to the producers other than simply meeting expectations.