History YMMV / Moonraker

** Jaws [[LoveRedeems falling in love and joining Bond's side at the climax]]. Detractors view this as an asinine move [[VillainDecay that eviscerates Jaw's menace]] that reduces him to DumbMuscle and squanders the possibility of giving Bond a new ArchEnemy now that Blofeld was ExiledFromContinuity. Supporters argue that this plot point gives Jaws far more agency than if he were just a constantly shuffling [[TheDragon second-in-command]] who only reappeared to fight Bond, and it was better to give him closure than risk overexposing him. [[TakeAThirdOption There's also a third camp]] who aren't opposed to the idea, but felt it was executed poorly in this film by playing the subplot for comedy instead of drama.

** The US military and Drax himself are able to launch fully-crewed and fully-fuelled space shuttles into orbit in only a matter of hours. In truth, the space shuttle took an average six months of preparation before it could be launched, and even the most optimistic prospects for the programme still called for several weeks of such work if multiple flights were to be worked into the span of a year. The only possible explanation would be that in this universe, maybe the US military had an always ready shuttle, since in this universe it also has trained space soldiers and hand-held laser weapons.

** The movie itself. For many fans and critics, the space sequences and the camp humour cements this as one of the most absurd Bond films in the series and is often looked upon with disdain. For many, however, it is either a guilty pleasure or a genuinely exciting movie. The latter camp is helped by the absolutely stunning and massive set pieces designed by Creator/KenAdam, the excellent special effects to accompany them by Derek Meddings and the top notch Music/JohnBarry soundtrack.
** Jaws falling in love and pulling a HeelFaceTurn. Detractors view this as an asinine move [[VillainDecay that eviscerates Jaw's menace]] that reduces him to DumbMuscle and squanders the possibility of giving Bond a new ArchEnemy now that Blofeld was ExiliedFromContinuity. Supporters argue that this plot point gives Jaws far more agency than if he were just a constantly shuffling [[TheDragon second-in-command]] who only reappeared to fight Bond, and it was better to give him closure than risk overexposing him. [[TakeAThirdOption There's also a third camp]] who aren't opposed to the idea, but felt it was executed poorly in this film by playing the subplot for comedy instead of drama.

* HollywoodHomely: Dolly, the girl Jaws falls in love with, is almost a parody of the trope. Creator/BlancheRavalec's pigtails and big glasses seem meant to make her look unattractive, but she's still clearly an impressively-proportioned blonde woman in a low-cut dress in a Bond film.

* BrokenBase: The movie itself. For many fans and critics, the space sequences and the camp humour cements this as one of the most absurd Bond films in the series and is often looked upon with disdain. For many, however, it is either a guilty pleasure or a genuinely exciting movie. The latter camp is helped by the absolutely stunning and massive set pieces designed by Creator/KenAdam, the excellent special effects to accompany them by Derek Meddings and the top notch Music/JohnBarry soundtrack.

* CompleteMonster: [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Hugo Drax]] is a cold, snobbish, understated executive who wishes to [[KillAllHumans exterminate the human race]], except for those he considers "[[MasterRace superior beings]]" (a standout in a series filled with megalomaniacs; most of them incorporate genocide as a side effect of what their ultimate aim is, while for Drax, it's half the point). To this end, Drax captures men and women whom he sees as physically perfect, planning to keep these people in his giant space station while he covers the Earth in a [[DeadlyGas rare toxin]] that will kill every human being on Earth. When one of his Moonraker space shuttles is hijacked, Bond is sent to investigate. Fearing that Bond will discover his plans, Drax sends his assassins to kill him, not doing the job himself because he wants Bond's death to [[ItAmusedMe amuse him]]. When he discovers that his personal pilot, Corrine Dufour, helped Bond uncover his plan, he fires her, then [[FedToTheBeast sends his dogs out to rip her apart]]. After he tells Bond his plan, he traps him and one of his scientists, Dr. Holly Goodhead, under one of his rockets, planning on burning the both of them. When he discovers Bond and Goodhead on his space station, he threatens to [[ThrownOutTheAirlock shoot them both out the airlock]]. When Bond corners him after his plans are failing, Drax finds a gun and threatens to shoot him, knowing that he'll at least "have the pleasure of putting [Bond] out of my misery". Drax is a [[VileVillainSaccharineShow chilling, dark villain who stands out in such a campy, silly movie]].

* CompleteMonster: [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Sir Hugo Drax]], though his plan is smaller in scale than [[Film/{{Moonraker}} his eventual film counterpart's]], is no less vile. Born "Hugo von der Drache" in Germany and an avid fan of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, Drax ran undercover missions against Britain for the Reich until he was mistakenly wounded by his own side and nursed back to health by the British. Stealing the identity of a MIA soldier with a similar name and feigning amnesia, Drax murdered the first rich man he could find after leaving the hospital for startup money and began plotting to avenge UsefulNotes/NaziGermany's defeat. Using his family's holdings in rare metals, Drax paid out of his own pocket to design the Moonraker, a state-of-the-art nuclear missile meant to defend Britain from the Russians, with Drax's philanthropy elevating him to a national hero. The only problem was, the missile was set to destroy London on its first test-firing with a real atomic bomb. When Drax describes the intended death toll for this catastrophe to him, Bond, a hardened killer himself, is left almost catatonic. Other crimes include running a motorist off the road and over a cliff due to the mere possibility he might've been a spy, and having people tortured for information with welding torches. For Drax, the mere destruction of their greatest city was not enough; he made himself into the British people's greatest hero [[HopeCrusher just so their collective spirits would be crushed]] when the nuke hit.

** Bond's female contact in Brazil being named Manuela tends to elicit some snickers among Latin American fans, as in the region "Manuela" is slang for ADateWithRosiePalms. Considering the aforementioned "Dr. Goodhead", this ''might'' have been an intentional pun.

* ValuesResonance: Sir Hugo Drax as an ultra-rich aerospace magnate who uses his philanthropy and public image to hide his ulterior motives is a character archetype that perhaps plays better in today's age of Silicon Valley tech billionaires than it did in the 1950's.

* CompleteMonster: [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Hugo Drax]] is a cold, snobbish, understated executive who wishes to [[KillAllHumans exterminate the human race]], except for those he considers "[[MasterRace superior beings]]". To this end, Drax captures men and women whom he sees as physically perfect, planning to keep these people in his giant space station while he covers the Earth in a [[DeadlyGas rare toxin]] that will kill every human being on Earth. When one of his Moonraker space shuttles is hijacked, Bond is sent to investigate. Fearing that Bond will discover his plans, Drax sends his assassins to kill him, not doing the job himself because he wants Bond's death to [[ItAmusedMe amuse him]]. When he discovers that his personal pilot, Corrine Dufour, helped Bond uncover his plan, he fires her, then [[FedToTheBeast sends his dogs out to rip her apart]]. After he tells Bond his plan, he traps him and one of his scientists, Dr. Holly Goodhead, under one of his rockets, planning on burning the both of them. When he discovers Bond and Goodhead on his space station, he threatens to [[ThrownOutTheAirlock shoot them both out the airlock]]. When Bond corners him after his plans are failing, Drax finds a gun and threatens to shoot him, knowing that he'll at least "have the pleasure of putting [Bond] out of my misery". Drax is a [[VileVillainSaccharineShow chilling, dark villain who stands out in such a campy, silly movie]].

* HollywoodHomely: Dolly, the girl Jaws falls in love with, is almost a parody of the trope. Creator/BlancheRavalec's pigtails and big glasses seem meant to make her look unattractive, but she's still clearly an [[BuxomIsBetter impressively-proportioned]] blonde woman in a low-cut dress in a Bond film.

* HarsherInHindsight: Ahhh, remember the days when we had the Space Shuttle and Concorde, and permanently manned space stations [[IWantMyJetpack were just around the corner?]]
* HilariousInHindsight:
** A space-themed adventure in an otherwise non-sci-fi film series featuring a guy named Drax. [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014 Hmmm]]... What's funnier is his actor, Wrestling/{{Batista}}, played a Bond villain, [[TheBrute Mr. Hinx]] in ''Film/{{Spectre}}''.
** In this film, the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks United States Armed Forces]] has a fully trained and fully armed Space Force ready to intercept foreign threats in orbit within a few hours notice, specifically Drax's space station. Fast forward to 2018 when President Donald Trump began pursuing the military to establish a space force as an entirely new branch to the US Armed Forces, oficially founded in 2019; however, there's no SpaceMarine force, ''yet''.
** Drax is revealed to own the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but the French government wouldn't let him move it to the United States. ''Film/AViewToAKill'' would show an action sequence at the tower in Paris.

* HarsherInHindsight: Ahhh, remember the days when we had the Space Shuttle and Concorde, and permanently manned space stations [[IWantMyJetpack were just around the corner?]]

** A space-themed adventure in an otherwise non-sci-fi film series featuring a guy named Drax. [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Hmmm]]... What's funnier is his actor, Wrestling/{{Batista}}, played a Bond villain, [[TheBrute Mr. Hinx]] in ''Film/{{Spectre}}''.

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** Bond is placed in a centrifuge that can test the durability of potential astronauts against a g-force of up to twenty gs, which Dr. Goodhead remarks would be fatal. In actuality, Air Force Colonel John Stapp had set the record for a human's sustainability against g-forces of up to 46 gs in ''1954'', twenty-five years before the film was released.
** The skydiving scene, exciting as it is, takes ''much'' too long. Bond freefalls for about two full minutes before he pulls the ripcord, which means he fell for approximately 18,000 feet. He sure doesn't start out that high, and he doesn't even seem to be much closer to the ground when he opens his 'chute.
** Kudos to the film for dealing with artificial gravity in a realistic way, by spinning the station. The problem is, that only works on surfaces perpendicular to the center of rotation. The control center has floor surfaces parallel with the center of rotation— everybody would be stuck on the walls. Certainly for budget reasons, as really doing it correctly like ''Film/TwoThousandAndOneASpaceOdyssey'' would have been extremely expensive.

* SugarWiki/DevelopmentHeaven: The mid-air fight was pulled off with real stuntmen and no special effects. The crew made ''88 jumps'' to capture a few minutes of footage.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: This movie's gotten a lot of criticism for essentially being a near beat-for-beat rehash of its immediate predecessor ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'', which was already a rehash of ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice''.

* CriticalDissonance: It's widely thought of as one of, if not the worst, Bond movies, but it was the highest-grossing film in the franchise until ''Film/{{GoldenEye}}'' was released.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Did Bond not break the vase because he didn't want to smash a very expensive item? Or was he just annoyed by the alarm?

* IdiotPlot: In reality, Drax's plan to repopulate the world with his chosen ones would simply not work, period. No matter how 'perfect' (i.e. attractive) his minions were, there were simply not near enough of them to rebuild or sustain any kind of civilization. His numbers alone would have put humanity into a population bottleneck far more severe than that proposed by the Toba catastrophe theory, in which it is estimated the total number of humans on the entire Earth, at ~10,000, or less even, far more than Drax's space station could ever hold; his entire harem would be roughly equivalent to the population of a small village. There's also the fact that his group at no point is shown to have the skills, numbers, and resilience to survive in a de-populated world, a world that would be wracked by massive pollution from abandoned nuclear, industrial and chemical sites, among other threats and dangers. The end result of Drax's megalomania, should his plan have worked, would likely lead to the total extinction of the human race, not a rebirth. At best, his group might have a shelf-life of a few generations before expiring. Inbreeding, infighting, and deaths caused by accidents, pollution, or just plain despair would claim enough of them to render the entire undertaking a lost cause. If they were really fortunate, the (inbred) survivors might end up living an existence not dissimilar to some of the most isolated tribes in South America, Africa and the Indian Ocean, if they survived at all, that is.

** Chang showing up in a kendo outfit and swinging around a [[WoodenKatanasAreJustBetter bokken]] while [[{{Kiai}} screaming every time he attacks]], all the while acting more like [[PricelessMingVase a bull in a china shop]] than someone actually trying kill Bond. It's hard to take the fight scene seriously, as it looks more like a fight between [[Franchise/ThePinkPanther Inspector Clouseau and Cato]].