Yeah. Like I said, more symbolism than in most of them, and of course Adele's tune is great.

Yeah, the Heineken was a bit of a let-down, although at least it was low-profile (having heard about it beforehand, I'd have expected it to get much more attention). Though on the topic of product placement, you have to wonder what Caterpillar paid for that little mini-ad on the train there...

I don't entirely agree that it didn't feel like a Bond movie, though - I thought one of its strengths was that it did those things while still feeling like a Bond movie. There are plenty of Bond girls who die, though (all three Craig movies have that, in fact) - I have to say for a while I wasn't actually sure if Sévérine was dead, what with her hanging there like that.

Fair point - one sort of wonders what the point of his death even was, he doesn't seem to have had anyone important fooled. I guess to answer my own question, there was only one point to his "death" - which was forcing him to an active decision to return to service, while he could just as well have stayed where he was. But like you say, it went too fast for that to seem like a real option.

I saw at least one review mentioning the same thing, so evidently yes. Didn't really think of it myself (though I was reminded of a scene in The Avengers when M and Bond went visiting Silva's cage), but of course what with the bizarre hair colour, the obvious mental instability and strange sense of humour, there are obvious parallels.