There are many things that define a James Bond movie. The actor playing Bond, of course, but also the villain, the car, the theme song, and the Bond Girl. Daniel Craig's tenure as Bond featured one of the greatest Bond Girls in franchise history in Eva Green's Vesper Lynd, but women in his other films couldn't quite live up to that high standard. Léa Seydoux's Madeleine Swann certainly doesn't in Spectre. And yet, Seydoux returns in No Time to Die, making her one of the only Bond Girls to appear in more than one movie; she pulls off something special. Madeleine was an underwhelming Bond Girl in Spectre who didn't have much chemistry with 007. In No Time to Die, which came out five years ago today, that's kind of the point, and it's tragically poignant.
Madeleine is introduced in Spectre as the daughter of Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), a member of the titular evil organization. White urges Bond to protect his daughter, and though they don't necessarily trust one another at first, Madeleine and Bond end up working together to take down SPECTRE, and they grow close. 2015’s Spectre has many problems. The opening set piece in a helicopter above Mexico City is terrific, but after that the movie gets way too bogged down in its own mythology, especially with the reveal that archvillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) is Bond's adoptive brother. Madeleine is another problem.
