Movie Review # 376: Octopussy (1983)

Ladies & gentlemen, surprise, surprise! Now, I bet you’re all wondering why I didn’t review this next installment in the James Bond franchise last night. Well, the reason that I didn’t was because circumstances have occurred, where I was unable to watch the 007 that immediately followed this one tonight. Because of that, I watched this film this past Monday night, and the one after it last night. As a result, I will be reviewing those two tonight, and tomorrow night respectively. To continue in this series, let’s talk about 1983’s Octopussy, shall we?

Plot: When James Bond (Roger Moore) connects a Faberge egg to some smugglers from Germany, and India, it’s up to Bond to track them down, and prevent them from teaming up with a Soviet General, and expanding Soviet control in Europe.

Once again, we have a 007 film that seems to be one of the more weaker films in this film library. Oh no! It’s not like Man With The Golden Gun, which seems to remain the weakest of the bunch thus far. At the same time, however, 007: Octopussy doesn’t seem to be one of those films that is quite somewhere in the A range either. First off, we once again have a 007 film that seems to move a little too quickly at certain points in time. This especially seems to be the case for the beginning, as well as different points around the middle of the film. In addition to this, there were also some scenes that could have most likely been cut from the film. How much better would this film have been afterwards? Well, hopefully a little better than before! Once again, we also seem to have the issue of having way too many characters. While there are some, in addition to Bond, who are crucial to the story, it’s almost like there are others who are probably there just because they can be. I’m not sure if this was as big of an issue with the other James Bond movies that would follow. However, it certainly seemed like back in the 60s through 90’s, or afterwards, the makers of this film, and the MGM corporation overall had this deal of cramming in additional characters that weren’t exactly necessary, you know? Also, going off of that, there were also some characters that seemed to be a little too underdeveloped. One can likely notice this especially with some of the lesser known characters in the beginning, and some of the less memorable villains. Yes, these villains were decent to say the least. Yes, they were okay, but not villains that you might really enjoy seeing onscreen like ones from movies like On Her Majesty’s Service, Live & Let Die, Moonraker, or films like those, you know?

So what are the areas that make this film good? Well, for one, MGM and the people at the company most certainly seemed to know how to set up the story in the beginning, and beyond. Yes, the story itself has issues at points, but still good overall. 007: Octopussy also does a fantastic job of showing how even women can fight battles when they need to. I mean with scenes like those, it’s like we have a pre-Charlie’s Angel’s type of film before the movies versions of that story came out. Some of the weapons that are used are awesome too, if used in the right ways. There’s even this one weapon in particular that, if existent in real life, let’s just say that it could be useful for protecting yourself, and your family, if need be. Also, how could you not enjoy getting a taste of learning Indian culture, as well as a little bit of German culture as well? As for the special effects, while it was proven in films like this one that those still had yet to improve to a degree, one should easily tell that they were on their way to greatness more so than they may have been around twenty to twenty-five years before when the 007 films began in the first place. It’s also great to learn about some additional information in addition to learning about different cultures that were presented in this film. One final thing to mention is that some of the scenery is really beautiful, specifically with certain shots that occur towards the end of this movie. If you don’t like this film for anything else, you may want to watch this film, and skip to points where it has those beautiful shots, be it the landscape of India, fabulous sunsets, and other shots too.

And that’s my review for 007: Octopussy. It may not be quite one of the best 007 films. Even so, there’s a good majority of material in here to recommend to the audience. Yes, this movie may have issues at certain points in time. Not to mention that you might not rewatch it as much as say other Bond films in this franchise. Still, 007: Octopussy is very enjoyable overall.

Final Grade: B