Spectre: 5 Awesome Things (And 8 That Sucked) In The New James Bond

6. Lea Seydoux Is Passive

This one might make people angry. Lea Seydoux is brilliant. In Blue Is The Warmest Colour, she's a force of nature, and after showing off her action chops in the Mission:Impossible franchise (Bond's stupider, richer cousin) hopes were high that she would provide an interesting foil to Bond. Of course she's wasted in this film. Don't get me wrong, she turns in a great performance as Madeleine Swann, has bundles of charm, sex appeal, and good chemistry with Bond, but, short of firing one bullet from one gun, doesn't really do anything other than follow James around, fall for him (a romantic angle that goes from 0-60mph in a jarring moment) and then get kidnapped & imperilled in the most contrived way possible. None of Swann's spiritedness, and she certainly has plenty of angry, don't-think-you're-getting-any-here "strong female character" traits, but none of them translate into any actionable change in the plot, short of getting herself kidnapped. She talks a lot but is an almost entirely passive character, which is a huge letdown.