Does anyone think that Monica Bellucci and Léa Seydoux

I think that Monica Bellucci should have been the main Bond girl, and that she is way hotter than Lea Seydoux, and they should have just simply switched roles. Bellucci may have been told to be Mr. White's daughter, but maybe they could have just made her his wife or something. Or perhaps he could still be White's daughter as long as White had her at a young age.

Either way, I think she is just much more attractive and interesting than Seydoux and felt she should have been the lead woman. What do you think?

There is no way that EON would make a 50+ year old woman the main Bond girl.

Yeah but Craig is much closer in age to Bellucci compared to Seydoux, so would fans really have a problem with that?

A lot of fans complained that Moore was too old for Tanya Roberts, so if these same fans complained about a four year age gap between Craig and Bellucci, they would just be being hypocritical about it. Plus Bellucci is much hotter than Seydoux regardless of age, so don't looks matter more, since EON probably wants the main Bond girl to be the better looking one?

Salomé wrote:

There is no way that EON would make a 50+ year old woman the main Bond girl.

The main Bond girl in Skyfall was almost 80.

ironpony wrote:

Yeah but Craig is much closer in age to Bellucci compared to Seydoux, so would fans really have a problem with that?

That's hardly a supporting argument. Craig is too old for James Bond and has been from the start - IIRC, the 00 section has a mandatory retirement age of 35. We live in an age of lack of self-awareness but, even so, no one starts a career aas a trainee frontline soldier when they're pushing 40.

Though I hear Craig will be playing Ophelia on Broadway in 2018...

Erica Ambler wrote:

Salomé wrote:

There is no way that EON would make a 50+ year old woman the main Bond girl.

The main Bond girl in Skyfall was almost 80.

Yeah but they still wrote in Severine for the obligatory romp in the shower scene.

Anyway, I don't think any of the recent problems with the Bond series are related to the age of the Bond girls.

Salomé wrote:

Yeah but they still wrote in Severine for the obligatory romp in the shower scene.

She's hardly the main Bond girl. Besides the shower scene is part of Bond's rebirth - thematically and visually, Skyfall is much cleverer and richer than most people realise.

Salomé wrote:

Anyway, I don't think any of the recent problems with the Bond series are related to the age of the Bond girls.

True. If anything, Seydoux - let alone Bellucci - was too old for the part of Madeleine, given she's meant to have daddy issues. Craig is 17 years older than Seydoux.

ironpony wrote:

[BelluCCi] is just much more attractive and interesting than Seydoux

Monica was beautiful and is still very striking, but age is a cruel mistress. Often an indiscrimnate one as well.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Salomé wrote:

There is no way that EON would make a 50+ year old woman the main Bond girl.

The main Bond girl in Skyfall was almost 80.

ironpony wrote:

Yeah but Craig is much closer in age to Bellucci compared to Seydoux, so would fans really have a problem with that?

That's hardly a supporting argument. Craig is too old for James Bond and has been from the start - IIRC, the 00 section has a mandatory retirement age of 35. We live in an age of lack of self-awareness but, even so, no one starts a career aas a trainee frontline soldier when they're pushing 40.

Though I hear Craig will be playing Ophelia on Broadway in 2018...

Mandatory age is 45, but yes, it's a problem if Bond looks 45 when he's supposed to be a "rookie" (and what is that when Bond is in the elite section? A rookie elite? A novice pro?). 

Bellucci barely delivered in her 5 minute role so I'm not sure she should have been the main Bond girl. Perhaps if the role was meatier she'd have more to work with. But then Seydoux was wasted so it boils down to the script. SPECTRE was in dire need of a rewrite, which many people at MGM, Sony and Eon knew, but they didn't do anything about it.

Well I think the reason why didn't deliver much was cause of the part, and it didn't give her a lot. I don'd think it was a result of her. Bellucci has had bigger roles in other movies, and she is a good actress, in my opinion, that could have done more if given to her.

Erica Ambler wrote:

The main Bond girl in Skyfall was almost 80.

Do you know that scene in The Simpsons when Homer wishes for a Bond girl and then comes Judi Dench?

Erica Ambler wrote:

She's hardly the main Bond girl. Besides the shower scene is part of Bond's rebirth - thematically and visually, Skyfall is much cleverer and richer than most people realise.

No, I really didn't see it! Could you please elaborate a bit? I do not see the visual connection.

Erica Ambler wrote:

given she's meant to have daddy issues.

Yes, I was just about to point that out. I mean, Bond's interested in wives (nothing he would have to marry himself), so Belluci may have worked, but still...
The franchise demands young female blood. You know it. I know it.
And the daddy issues make it so much easier. Why go for a wife, a full-grown being with an own will, when there is young Madelaine who needs a new "daddy"? Is that what the film is telling us? What do you think? I am curious to hear because I am not sure why they always point out her daddy issues. Is this self-referential to old Bond films again?

The more often I see SP, the more I hate Madelaine. The transition from "I loathe you" to "I hate you" is kind of non-existent and she would be the weakest surrogate Tracy I could ever have imagined. And then she makes Bond quit the service which just kills "Bond" as a franchise as well as everything it had ever been. She has domesticated him, are you aware of that? Purring clawless kitten driving Madelaine into the sunset...

FieldsMan wrote:

But then Seydoux was wasted so it boils down to the script

She would also have needed a better make up artist. They made her the opposite of a Bond girl. Look at her. Look at Sévérine...There's an obvious difference in her styling. She was never meant to be a Bond girl. So, after al, Belluci may be the only Bond girl in SP...

When I said Seydoux was wasted I didn't mean because the make up artist didn't do a good job. Seydoux is a gorgeous little thing, regardless. This is about the writers giving her less-than-mediocre material to work with.

FieldsMan wrote:

When I said Seydoux was wasted I didn't mean because the make up artist didn't do a good job. Seydoux is a gorgeous little thing, regardless. This is about the writers giving her less-than-mediocre material to work with.

I know, it was my addition. I do not say either that the make-up artist didn't do a good job, I'm sorry. That's not what I mean.  But the choice to style her the way they did strikes me as odd. Some of her clothing is simply not becoming.
And it is not very glamorous. Think of those low-back dresses of Vesper and Sévérine and that, well, catastrophe Madelaine is given. The only nice piece of clothing she gets is the white dress which is too close to a wedding dress after all to pass as the kind of finery the others wear. Her styling is very plain and simple in comparison what a Bond girl is meant to be (and the aggressive lingerie of Bellucci).
I can't judge if she's gorgeous or not; I can only say that the style they have chosen for her does not exactly strike me as "Bond girl". Probably because she was meant to be his partner.

In sum, Bellucci's style and air are much closer to a Bond girl than Madelaine's. Setting the age aside, the true Bond girl, if we look at the defining parameters, would be Bellucci's character. She needs to be saved and asks for protection. Madelaine doesn't want Bond. She says that it was him who put her in danger in the first place, and she is right about that...She can't abide the kind of life he lives; she finds it appalling. That's probably another reason why they styled her rather simple and plain. She's not of Bond's world. She does not qualify for a Bond girl after all.

Both are extremely capable actresses who were totally and completely wasted.

Madeline is written to be a "new" and "different" character who goes right into causing plot points and being a damsel in distress simply because somebody picked up Writing 101. Which is a criminal waste because Seydoux was by far and large the best and only damn good thing in the picture. Two hours would have been better spent as a Madeline character study.

Sometimes I think that Madelaine was written by two different writers who didn't talk to each other.