Hmm, I don't know...I'm in the minority here, but I didn't think she was all that great. To be fair, I don't think she's a terrible actress, but I think that she could have done better. These situations take two to tango; I would have liked the director to do more with her to bring life to her character. That's part of the responsibility of the job. I don't like to soley blame actors for lackluster performances these days; in the hands of a terrible director, you could make Morgan Freeman come off as awkward, but in the hands of a great director you could make Lindsay Lohan be a complex and conflicted character. Now those are extreme examples, but I still stand by my point that a director can help a subject look deep inside and perform better.
I felt that she fundamentally lacked that extra spark. Many times I saw her scenes and I said to myself "that's fine, but take it up 5-10% more." I'm not trying to critically compare Emma to the books or Wolverine and the X-men. I'm just looking at the basic emotional and situational cues that the scenes called for and how she would act opposite other actors.
The last problem I think has to do with being opposite some of the cast members like Bacon, Fassbender and Mcavoy; they had a lot more time to shine, were main characters and were oozing with charisma.
Overall I don't have problem with Ms Jones, I thought she did alright, but I would have been curious to see another actress in this role and see how a alternate approach would have affected the film.
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