Good, but not as good as the original

Rating: 7/10 (6 October 2006)

Just got back from seeing this in Taiwan (where it opened yesterday, in time for Mid-Autumn festival) Good movie, but decided to re-watch the original (Infernal Affairs) back home... and the original edges over it in terms of emotion, pace and character development.
'The departed' is great once it gets going and the premise really starts to kick in,and jack Nicholson is incredible, but I can't help feeling that the director was going for too much humour - from the 9at times0 overly witty dialogue to the closing scene. And some of the set pieces - the elevator scene near the end, for example, are not handled as well as in the original (the audience laughed out loud during the elevator scene, and I'm not sure that was the intended effect).
All in all, a good film, but I feel it just misses out on being a great one, especially when compared with its Asian counterpart.