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10 Reasons Why Spectre Doesn’t Top Skyfall

Sam Mendes' Spectre, the 24th entry in the James Bond franchise, is not a bad film. Critical consensus indicates it's flawed, but still basically enjoyable and artfully made by a director who's proven surprisingly adept at blockbuster filmmaking. Nevertheless, Spectre has the misfortune of following one of the greatest Bond movies of all-time: Mendes' own Skyfall. A Bond film made to simultaneously bring 007 up-to-date and celebrate 50 years of the character, Skyfall is comfortably the best of the Daniel Craig Bonds. Spectre comes in at a respectable third.

8) Madeline Swann Is The Worst Craig Bond Girl Yet

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Lea Seydoux didn’t win a Palme D’Or (along with co-star Adele Exarchopolous and director Abdellatif Kechiche, for Blue is the Warmest Color) for nothing. She is currently one of French cinema’s brightest lights; so why did Sam Mendes and the writing team give Seydoux so little to work with in Spectre?

After boldly messing with the format in Skyfall and giving Bond girl duties to Judi Dench’s M, Mendes and co. go back to formula with Spectre and present viewers a Bond girl of old: vulnerable yet feisty, but ultimately susceptible to Bond’s charms.

Swann isn’t really a character, though – she’s a template that has barely any impact on the plot. Seydoux tries, but fails to make much of anything out of a character that is on the page almost a total blank.