Roger Moore’s penultimate James Bond Movie, Octopus, is one of the most polarizing entries in the series. The double critical panning of Octopus and A look at a kill led to the solemn end of the Moore era. Moore didn’t have a bittersweet swan song to say goodbye to the role like Daniel Craig; He just kept making Bond films until the audience had had enough.
Looking back while A look at a kill is as weak as many contemporary critics said, Octopus has a few saving graces. It’s certainly not a perfect film, but it’s not a complete disaster either. It has exciting action sequences, an unforgettable “Bond Girl” performance and Moore can always be seen in the role of 007.
2 It’s not as bad as people say
Roger Moore’s tongue-in-cheek portrayal of Bond is uniquely worth seeing
In both great and terrible films, Roger Moore gives one of Bond’s most iconic portrayals. The first actor to fill in Sean Connery’s footsteps, George Lazenby, just made a Connery impression. But Moore embraced the role with a truly unique attitude.
This attitude is characterized by crazy one-liners and slapstick gags. This tone works best when Moore goes with the crazy flow, and he’s more relaxed in the role than ever Octopus.
The climactic aircraft sequence is breathtaking
The action sequences in Octopus are a mixed bag, but the film kicks into high gear in the finale with by far its most exciting set piece (and one of the most exciting set pieces in the entire series).
Bond battles a villain on the outside of a plane high in the sky. This sequence plays like a Christopher Nolan sequence that was shot long before CGI could be used to delete seat belts.
It’s such bad quality
The plot of Octopus is so absurd and the humor is so direct and the tone of the whole endeavor is so shamelessly goofy and ridiculous that it’s fun from an ironic standpoint.
Any movie that dresses 007 up as a clown and sends him to the circus to be mocked by kids belongs in the same bad-is-good category as The space and trolls 2 and Plan 9 from space.
Maud Adams’ performance is controversial but undeniably memorable
Maud Adams became one of the rare Bond Girl actresses to return for a second role. After playing Scaramanga’s girlfriend The man with the golden gunshe was given a more prominent role than the titular villain turned lover Octopus.
Adam’s portrayal of Octopussy received extremely mixed reviews, with some critics citing her performance as one of the film’s highlights and others complaining that it drags the film down. Love it or hate it, it’s certainly a memorable twist.
It captures the essence of the franchise: fun
What draws audiences to Bond films – and has made 007 such a reliable box office hit for so many decades – is the promise of pure, unadulterated, non-stop fun. As war of stars movies, Bond adventures offer pure, spectacular escapism from start to finish.
Octopus may not be a particularly intelligent film, and it may not be particularly well planned or dramatically appealing. But it abounds in fun and spectacle and escapism.
1 It’s as bad as people say
The plot takes the slapstick humor too far
Goofy humor has failed much of the action in Moore’s Bond films. In The man with the golden gun, an amazing car stunt is ruined with a ridiculous slide whistle sound effect. In A look at a killa ski chase is ruined with a riff on “California Girls.”
In Octopus, the slapstick goes too far. The humor permeates so much of the film’s plot that very little of it is devoted to actually engaging audiences. Bond never really seems to be in any danger (except when he’s hanging from the side of a flying airplane).
It has one of the worst Bond villains
There are a few common picks for the worst Bond villain of all time, from Gustav Graves to Max Zorin, and Octopus‘s General Orlov is one of them. This renegade Soviet general is one-dimensional and cliche at his best, and offensive and cartoonish at his worst.
Renowned character actor Steven Berkoff brings his A-game to the role, but even the most talented actor can’t save a misunderstood character.
The plot is unnecessarily convoluted
No one goes into a Bond film for the plot, but every film still needs a working story driven by action with a few emotional beats. The conspiracy of Octopus is both painfully formulaic and unnecessarily convoluted.
There’s the death of a secret agent, a fake Fabergé egg and an international jewelry smuggling ring before it comes to the nuclear terror operation for which everything is a cover. This story is a hat on a hat on a hat.
The runtime is too long
At 131 minutes, Octopus pushes his luck. Light, escapist action-adventure blockbuster fare should probably not exceed two hours. Octopus surpasses its two-hour allotment by just 11 minutes, but the stretched running time has a psychological impact on audiences.
It feels like it could have been shortened a bit. The screenwriters gave director John Glen too much storyline to juggle, and it spilled past the comfortable 120-minute mark.
It’s one of the silliest Bond films
There’s always room for a bit of silliness in a Bond film, like a wacky gadget or a cheesy one-liner, but Octopus‘s silliness is beyond pale – even by the standards of Bond’s Moore-era silliness.
In Octopus, Moore’s 007 disguises himself as a clown to sneak into a circus and is taunted by a group of kids. He wears a gorilla outfit and makes a ridiculous “Tarzan scream” in the middle of a jungle hunt.
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