Skyfall: Random Observations

• My goodness, the Bond franchise really is 50 years old now, ain't it!
• Good to see this franchise reboot has completed the character-development arc begun with Casino Royal, of Bond transforming from an angry, reckless young recruit into the classic Connery-era gentleman, complete with fine Oxford suit, Q, and Moneypenny.
• I only wish the Martin DB5 had had more to do.
• The caretaker of Skyfall lodge: that role was totally written for Sean Connery, wasn't it.
• Man, Javier Bardem really just played his same character from No Country For Old Men, didn't he.  When he and Bond first met, I half expected him to flip a coin and ask Bond to guess which side.  At least I got to see Javier die this time.  (I admire the Coen brothers' technical proficiency, but seriously, I hated No Country For Old Men).
• "And what is your hobby, Mr. Bond?" "Resurrection."  Given the stubborn tenacity of this franchise's vitality through multiple actors, directors, incarnations, etc, that was probably the most meta line of the movie.
• Javier Bardem's character was also just a rehash of 006 from Goldeneye.
• Come to think of it, he was also the computer hacker from Goldeneye, as well.
• I think it's officially time we retire the ol' "He wanted to be caught!" plot-twist--the Joker already used it 4 years ago in The Dark Knight.  Shoot, Loki used it just this last summer in The Avengers!
• The motorcycles atop the rooftops feels like it was from a Bourne film--and James Bond needs to be the O.G., not the copycat of his manifold imitators.
• I believe this is at least the third time Bond has faked his death--first time in You Only Live Twice and again in Die Another Day.
• But maybe I'm being too harsh on all of Skyfall's Bond-trope re-treads: perhaps these re-treads were all, like the Martin DB5, winking references to how this film was taking the series back to its farthest roots, to the point of actually showing us Bond's ancestral birthplace.  In order to take this series into the future, this film first had to go deeper into Bond lore than any previous film had dared go.
• If so, then perhaps the film's most meta moment instead belongs to Bond's decision to finally be one step ahead of Bardem by returning to the distant past.  
• Final verdict: Skyfall's better than Quantum of Solace (which I still defend, btw), but Casino Royal remains the best of the reboot series.