Bond movies varied erratically in quality, but they ain't got sh*t on the women who populate them. Bond girls range from being more memorable as the villain to eye candy treated by the film with even less care than the hero, with more falling into the latter camp. It doesn't help that they typically fall into three categories: the damsel in distress, the traitor, the one-shag (who probably gets killed). In that regard, Madeline Swann is a pretty solid love interest. Both an intellectual match for Bond and someone who needs his help, she who straddles the traditional types; even though she's severely underwritten, the motivation behind the character is strong. In fact, Seydoux may be my favourite Bond girl. It's a perverse claim, because what the actress is given is so slight, and as the film barrels towards its climax Swann's motivations become increasingly erratic to fit the desperate script, but she presents it so well, her innate on-screen sultriness overriding the flaws in the writing. How well she is revered in the long run will depend entirely how she is handled in Bond 25 (assuming she's not just dropped, it'll have to be a recreation of the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, right?), but based on Spectre alone Seydoux did a grand job.
