In my opinion, The Departed blew IA away in every aspect. IA had zero character development, little plot development and minimal intrigue. Departed also had far better directing and acting. So, for those of you who liked IA better, what specifically is it that you believe this movie did better than The Departed?
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.
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"The three lead performances in TD were very poor"
I wanted to stop reading after this.
"DiCaprio sweats from shouting too much, Damon sweats from snarling too much whilst Nicholson sweats from laughing too much"
I had to stop reading after this. The most ludicrous criticismn of The Departed I've ever encountered.
When really they are both great movies in their own right.
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With the exception of Martin Sheen and Vera Farmiga, I can't take the acting in The Departed seriously. The performances in this are far superior, as far as I'm concerned.
All behold the spectacle! - Vlad Drac
Even though I watched TD first, I still found IA to be far superior in terms of direction and acting. It also had that certain something... IA was just more... real?
share1. It was made first.
2. As the other poster said, the acting in the Departed is just over-the-top and caricature-like almost, which is common in recent Scorsese movies, like Gangs of New York.
3. The ending, where the guy stays a cop but the undercover guy also gets a hero's funeral. It was like a good mix between happy and sad ending. The Marky Mark execution scene at the end of Departed felt stupid.
4. The way in which DiCaprio infiltrates the mob so quickly, all the way up to a position of Costello's inner circle, is too unbelievable. The guy in IA (Chan? I get all these damn names mixed up)takes a lot longer to work his way up the criminal ranks.
5. Nicholson's character is ridiculous.
6. Dicaprio is just not convincing as a tough guy. I don't know why Scorsese insists on making us believe he is. (Gangs of New York and this)
7. The character of the dirty cop is a lot more well done. You can see the conflict in him and he is almost likeable. Matt Damon's character was simply a sniveling little rat and a nerd.
8. Joining two characters in one (Vera Fermiggio) in the Departed was a weak move, almost like they did it just to create some love triangle. Also, it is not believable to me that Vera's character would fall for Dicaprio's character the way she does.
The usage of cell phones was weak. The morse code was much more believable.
The Departed felt less serious than IA. I'm glad they decided not to release any more sequels to TD. Once was seriously just enough. IA never needed a remake.
The Departed seems a little stupid to me, the concept of remaking a film about a highly organised crime syndicate like the Triads then replacing them Boston street thugs is just ridiculous.
As for the acting, even Nicholson manages to get it wrong in TD, that cinema scene (amongst others) made it impossible to believe he could be an organised criminal. As for Whalberg, what was the point in him? There's no room for brawling loud-mouths at that level of law enforcement. Damon's character pales in comparison to Lau's in IA, he's a tactless bully without layers. In IA his character appears to be a skilled and intelligent sociopath who becomes conflicted by his desires to lead a normal life. DiCaprio does his part well enough, but no better than the actor who played Yan in IA. Sheen is also close to par, but you don't get any sense of the father/son relationship that is shown in IA, which I felt was one of the most important sub-plots.
Then there's cinematography, or lack of it in TD. IA's ostentatious rooftop face off made me believe that something big was about to happen and the spectacular shots of HK really added to the intensity throughout. Whilst in TD the lack of grandeur really kills the suspense. Smoky Boston bars and cheap diners are for small time hoods, not international crimelords - Although I'm not sure which Nicholson is, because first you see him taking protection money from a local café then later he's trading microprocessors (?!!?) to a bunch of well-armed Triads (but not before he's managed to patronise and mock them with casual racism first.)
The biggest difference was of course the ending. In Infernal Affairs, when Yan realises Lau is a mole, he realises his identity was killed with the police chief. This is why he (and he alone) must confront Lau on the rooftop. However in The Departed, Marky *beep* Mark Whalberg knew all along, so there is no need for a stand off! He can simply go find his buddy and they can arrest Damon without incident. It's worth mentioning that the way Lau gets away with it in IA was excellent, it's disappointing that Scorsese went soft and chose a bittersweet ending.
Everything. There's not a single aspect in which it's not better IMO. That's most noticeable in the acting (Di Caprio is good, but Leung gives one of the best performances of the last 20 years, Nicholson is ridiculously over the top, nobody else impresses in TD), the plot and the ending especially. The ending of The departed is plain dumb. Typical Hollywood nonsensical "twist ending" crap.
"He was a self-made man who owed his lack of success to nobody."