Departed is Never close to being Good.

Rating: 4/10 (15 October 2006)

Whoever says The Departed is Good, brilliant or Even Purfect is clueless about how a good movie should be.
10 points to prove Departed isn't close to being a 'good' movie.
1) The entire show was unbalanced when Jack Nicholsan allegedly changed his script, on top of the demand for a 'meatier' role. Scorsese was believed to have rewritten the script to suit him, and to make Jack agree in joining the cast. This led to awkward focus on him for the first half of the movie. Totally unncessary and time-wasting.
2) Poor choice of Leo's mentor. A better choice would be Robert DeNiro. Someone tough in appearance, but with an angel's heart. Sheen jus looked too too soft and powerless.
3)This remake took in a few points from 'Infernal II', where Tony Leung's (Leo) character's family history was explained in detail. Leung's dad, in the younger days, was much a baddie than the present Jack (traid gang leader). Thus Jack, when lunching with Leo, said, "your dad/ Uncle would kill me and my family if he saw me sitting here with you." However, what the film didn't do was to show the viewers HOW would Sheen guide Leo into meeting Jack. All the show did was to show Leo beat up a few guys & the next moment viola, Jack was lookin up for Leo, by a short intro from 'Mr. French'. All the intimate, heartfelt exchanges between Leo & his mentor was totally absent.
4) The show was BORING for the first hour, with lots of talking and talking, a couple of fights and 'fuck-you', and that's it. No wit-for-wit, game-for-game' kind of moves that have the 'Infernal Affairs' so famous and 'cutting edge'. It was Only in the last half an hour that the show, borrowed heavily from the original, featured a mental game/ fight between the two male leads.
5) Also, in 'Infernal Affairs II', the feud between Jack's and Sheen's characters was explained. That resulted in a long-time mutual understanding for each other. Here, Jack and Sheen were seen only exchanging superficial talks - "I will get you, Frank." "Get me if you can, Queen." Duh. My choice of Robert DeNiro fits perfectly into a scene: Frank sipping coffee with Queen (DeNiro) at an English café, both chatting casually about their lives and memories, but with an undercurrent running fiercely in the air. Both know exactly what each other thinks and wants, and laid down all their cards on the table, except for their own lead.It would be much enjoyable to see these two tough guys hitting hard on the other.
6) Wahlberg's Dignam wasn't, as someone said, non-existent in the original 'Infernal'. There was a character 'Inspector Cheung', played by Ng Ting Yip in the HK version. A powerful, shoot-from-the-hip kind of cop who stood by Leo's mentor. Dignam was created with some motive, BUT alas, what he did was idiotic: resigned but not contacting Leo? WTF was he thinking? 7) The fact that the show ended with all people dead, well except for Dignam clearly shows that there's no thread for any Part II extension. Just that simple. It's certainly NOT as someone commented, a brilliant move by Scorsese. Geez..some people just like topping Scorsese's head with tall hats and praises foolishly.
8) Someone actually 'revealed' that the scriptwriter deliberately did NOT watch the original Infernal while writing the Departed script, so as not to get too close with it. If this is true, he should be given two bloody knocks on his d!ck-head. Departed went so departed that the whole tension was absent for almost 2/3 of the show.
9) Another commentator said Damon's character Sullivan was empty and deviated from the Infernal's. He was spot-on on this; in Infernal, Andy Lau wanted to be a good guy, right from the beginning. He always had wanted to be Out of the triad and be a good cop, a good man. Thus he killed all who would threaten his position. In Departed, we see Sullivan killing for virtually nothing. Did he feel remorseful? Or guilty? Nooo...a bloody empty soul created by the 'brilliant' Scorsese.
10) The WORST of all: the classic scene of both leads pitting their wits against each other in the infamous two gangs' transaction. In Infernal, Leung (Leo) was using Morse Code (a brilliant move) via an antenna to contact his mentor, while on the other hand Andy (Damon) was to use comp to send out text messages to his boss for notification. There was an info leakage and Leung's mentor made a switch in radio frequency and called for a retreat, but to realise at the last sec that the transaction would be at a beach. Immediately the retreat was again cancelled with full force to head for the beach, whilst the triad boss would call for a disposal of Cocaine. All happened in a breath's time of few mins. This, in comparison to Departed, is two knots higher. Departed's scene of 'no camera' installed for the back-exit was laughable and idiotic.