8 Lazy Movies That Were Just Copying Better Films

8. 007 Goes Sci-Fi Because Of Star Wars - Moonraker

With twenty-four films over fifty-plus years under his belt, James Bond out-runs pretty much all other franchises in terms of longevity. If that makes you think he's always going to be the one leading the way, however, then you're very wrong.

The series had always skirted around the ridiculous, with Connery's adventures becoming increasingly silly (it's hard tell which is dumber out of a volcano base or a diamond powered superweapon) and Roger Moore's tenure only furthered that; who can forget Bond as a clown in Octopussy? But the eleventh film in the series pushed things to the extreme. The Spy Who Loved Me had ended with the usual coda for the next film, advertising it as For Your Eyes Only.

Eagle-eyed fans must have been a bit confused then, when a couple of years later the next 007 movie came out with the title Moonraker. Instead of the throwback to the early days of the series For Your Eyes Only ended up being, Moonraker was all out sci-fi, with the finale seeing Bond engaging in a laser battle in space. That all sounds bizarre, until you look at the release date of the film; it entered cinemas in 1979, a couple of years after Star Wars made sci-fi mainstream. There were countless more blatant attempts to capture a bit of Lucas' magic, but for Bond, even then a well established franchise, to do it smacks of laziness.