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[Nielm]

I've seen The Departed a few times, and I think it is a good movie.

However, I've heard that people say Infernal Affairs (the movie The Departed was based on) was much better, and honestly, I have to disagree.

First of all, I'll say this: Infernal Affairs had poor pacing, poor editing, poor directing and underwhelming acting, especially compared to The Departed.

1. The beginning of Infernal Affairs goes at lightning speed, not giving you enough time to feel compassion for the characters, or understand them.

2. The 'boss' of The Triads in Infernal Affairs had nowhere near the charisma of Frank Costello, neither was he nearly as intimidating. In The Departed, Frank is unpredictable and ruthless, you want him to be taken down. When I watched Infernal Affairs, I didn't care.

3. The therapist plot in Infernal Affairs was barely touched upon. There was no powerful scene like the 'valium' scene in The Departed. I did not feel much chemistry.

4. The intense scene where Leonardo DiCaprio is discovered by Matt Damon to be the rat, is completely forgettable in Infernal Affairs. As the mole calls the rat's cellphone, he says 'So it's you?' - I was not on the edge of my seat. In The Departed, Matt calls Leo - Leo hangs up. He has no idea what to expect.

5. People criticize 'The Departed' for Martin Sheen's death and Leo's cold reaction.
However, The Departed never makes Martin Sheen a father figure to Leo. This is the worst scene In The Departed, but it just seemed corny in Infernal Affairs.

6. Tony Leung (the rat) feels he is 'going psycho' in Infernal Affairs. However, this was not portrayed well at all. In The Departed, Leo's character is thrust into a world of violence. He witnesses beatings, murders, and in the film you can actually see he is at the breaking point. You can see how it affects him, how it makes him feel.

7. The climactic scene where the rat is suddenly killed while exiting an elevator, was corny in Infernal Affairs. After he is shot, sad music plays, and there are close ups of faces in black and white, in slow motion. In The Departed, it is completely abrupt. The protagonist of the film has just been killed, but the film does not make a big deal out of it.

8. Another scene is the rooftop scene. The rat encounters the mole. In Infernal Affairs...there is hardly any emotion. It's not exactly an explosive encounter. However, in The Departed, Matt Damon knows what he has done, he knows he has been led on. Leonardo has gone through hell, and now he discovers the truth. There is plenty of intensity.

9. Infernal Affairs glosses over the therapist discovering the truth about the mole. There's just some text at the bottom of the screen telling you what happened. In The Departed, the therapist plays the tape given to her by the rat on the speakers.

10. I hear people talk of Andy Lau's performance in this film, but Tony Leung did a better job to me. However, neither were on the level of Jack Nicholson or Leonardo DiCaprio.

11. Infernal Affairs does not tread into the 'criminal underworld' enough. The Departed shows you a good deal of what's going on behind the scenes.

My biggest criticism of 'Infernal Affairs' was that it seemed cold and robotic. The Departed was electric and intense.

Infernal Affairs elevator scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-SOciCRCdo
The Departed elevator scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b66y1LHixqY

Nothing in Infernal Affairs entertained me like:

Leo meeting Jack in The Departed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-gCd2vXziY

Leo encounters Frank Costello for the first time. Frank's intimidating presence immediately comes across in the film. You can see why he is such a big deal, and why he has to be brought down. This scene portrays the 'lion's den' Leo is entering.

The valium scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHknTd29GEI

In this scene, Leo expresses his anxiety and how his criminal life is affecting him, without mentioning he is undercover. You understand how difficult his job is.

I'm not saying Infernal Affairs is a bad movie, but that it's definitely worse than The Departed. Infernal Affairs has good framework, The Departed just does it better.

 

[Junior Mint]

Frankly, I found every bit of Infernal Affairs more stylish and entertaining than The Departed. The ending of The Departed is truly awful. I saw it in theatres and the entire audience laughed when that random killing spree happened.

I'm on mobile right now so maybe I'll update my thoughts tomorrow morning.

 

[kunonabi]

I completely disagree as I loved Infernal Affairs. We had to watch both movies for a course on violence in film and I absolutely hated the Departed. It just didn't work for me on any level.

 

[pauljeremiah]

You have to remember that The Departed had 3 films to pull info from to create one film.

 

[99Luffy]

I preferred Infernal Affairs. It worked better as a fast paced crime thriller rather than a long ass scorsese epic.

 

[SentientStone]

I enjoyed both but prefer the original.
There's some Buddhist undertones that are missing as well in the remake.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Infernal Affairs is a much better title, if nothing else. I do agree that The Departed let the characters breathe more, though.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Infernal Affairs is a better movie.

You are taking the wrong perspective by comparing IA to The Departed as if IA came after. You clearly had expectations based on what you knew of the remake's version of the story. That doesn't make sense. The remake adds a ton and changes a lot. You can't be holding that against the original.

Like this, for example:

3. The therapist plot in Infernal Affairs was barely touched upon. There was no powerful scene like the 'valium' scene in The Departed. I did not feel much chemistry.

No shit.

 

[Zushin]

Completely agreed OP. I still enjoyed Infernal Affairs, but The Departed was just so much more intense for mine.

 

[newtypepilot]

Infernal Affairs is better because The Departed changed the ending. Plus, you need to watch the sequels in order to understand the whole story.

 

[Nielm]

Infernal Affairs is a better movie.

You are taking the wrong perspective by comparing IA to The Departed as if IA came after. You clearly had expectations based on what you knew of the remake's version of the story. That doesn't make sense. The remake adds a ton and changes a lot. You can't be holding that against the original.

Like this, for example:



No shit.

Of course I can hold it against the original. If you can say that 'Infernal Affairs' is better than 'The Departed' - I am allowed to compare them in their full forms.

I can not disregard the therapist plot in The Departed because it was changed. You could have written out this aspect of Infernal Affairs and it wouldn't have been much different. It was integral to The Departed.
The therapist is an undercover cop in Infernal Affairs, this wasn't very coherent.

"My biggest criticism of 'Infernal Affairs' was that it seemed cold and robotic. The Departed was electric and intense."

People's actions in Infernal Affairs just didn't seem to have much levity. You have a mole betraying the Police. You have a cop pretending to be a criminal. The Departed brought these aspects to life in a better way.

 

[chillybright]

I watched them a decade ago... Cannot remember the details but IA trilogy floored me back then. The Departed not so much as I thought all the curse words every 2 seconds were unnecessary and distracting. IA was calm and cold, the Departed felt noisy.

 

[Lyonaz]

I prefer the original Infernal Affairs trilogy.

 

[scogoth]

To me Infernal Affairs is an amazing crime drama that was immensely enjoyable to watch with fun action and some light heartedness along the way. The Departed took that, added swearing and gratuitous violence and tries to pass off as an intense drama film but was ultimately not enjoyable to watch and took itself far to seriously.

 

[mingo]

Have you watched the sequels? I can't remember much of them cause I probably haven't watched them for maybe 10 years but some of the complaints you have are addressed in the sequels. The departed was a mix of all of them into 1 long film

 

[Chichikov]

Like the OP, I like the Departed more, and really by a small margin.
I think the plot is better, but honestly, I don't think either have spectacular scripts, but the Departed is just leagues better when it comes to execution.
Direction, editing, acting, pretty much everything, I think the Departed is just a much much better film than any of the original trilogy.

 

[Tadaima]

I love Infernal Affairs so I'm definitely going to have to watch The Departed. Thanks for the comparison!

 

[5taquitos]

Infernal Affairs is the superior movie.

So good, now I have to go watch it again.

 

[Premium Quality]

I prefer IA more because I didn't like the love triangle that was in The Departed.

 

[tolkir]

Infernal Affairs deserved that oscar and praise. Even Tarantino laughed at the idea of Scorsese doing an American Remake of a 5 years old Hong Kong movie.

 

[True Savior]

Infernal Affairs 2 is the best one. IA is a very tight thriller, great cast, cools twists and a ballsy ending. Departed is more dramatic, more gaudy. But in the end, it's still a copy.

 

[beyond_death]

I vastly prefer Infernal Affairs over The Departed but its been a while since I've watched either.

 

[HotHamBoy]

The last scene of The Departed ruins the movie.

 

[Herr Starr]

It generally seems like people prefer the movie they watched first of these two, and that's true in my case as well. In my opinion, Infernal Affairs is the better movie by far. The Departed misses the entire point of it, and needlessly mixes in elements of the second and third movie. The Hollywood-ending where things are neatly wrapped up is the worst part of the Departed.

Infernal Affairs wowed me when I first saw it. The Departed frustrated me.

 

[jett]

IA is an overdramatic cheesefest at points.

I like The Departed a good deal better.

 

[Siegcram]

First of all, I'll say this: Infernal Affairs had poor pacing, poor editing, poor directing and underwhelming acting, especially compared to The Departed.

Nope, nope, nope and nope.

Tony Leung's perfomance kicks the shit out of anyone on The Departed. Baldwin an Wahlberg were the only entertaining parts of that movie.

 

[number11]

I also prefer The Departed. As mentioned, most of the time it depends on which version you watched first.

 

[Hazaku]

I prefer IA and the Japanese adaption (Double Face).

EDIT: Grew up on HK films.

The Departed is still a good film though.

 

[Gully State]

Every single one of OP's opinions I completely disagreed with...I think saying Infernal Affairs is a poorly executed movie is the only objectively incorrect thing he said. I mean if that were the case, Scorscese wouldn't have made The Departed... I highly doubt he sat there, looked at the script and movie and said...yeah this is shit. Let's make a movie using this shit source material.

I think the only true consensus is that one's opinion on which one is better most likely depends on which one the individual saw first. Obviously there are exceptions but that seems to be the case most of the time.

As for me, I vastly prefered the original. Few opinions.

- Rat vs Mole theme vs Bhuddist undertones of eternal hell/morality. The biggest problem I have with The Departed is that it doesn't really put the moral struggles of both Leo and Matt Damon's characters into the forefront the way that Infernal Affairs does. I think Leo did an excellent job conveying that whereas Andy Lau's character is way more of a relatable character than Damon's character. Lau was just as tortured as Leung's character and someone the audience could sympathize with. Lau was trying to be a good person throughout the whole movie but his flaws always made him come up short. The contrast between both relateable characters was at the forefront driving the movie. Infernal Affairs does a way better job addressing the question "what makes a good person" and the concept of existence is suffering on both sides whereas the Departed's focus on mole vs rat just rang more hollow. This resulted in an imbalance as Leo's character was this tortured soul that you were rooting for while Scorscese went out of his way to make Damon's character pathetic (IE- premature ejaculator etc..... ).

- Which brings me to the other point, Jack's character. Nicholson was just too bombastic and to the point that his performance overshadowed everyone elses. Like I get that he was probably more charismatic than his HK counterpart but he dominated the movie to the detriment of the other characters. In Infernal Affairs, the handlers (mob boss and police chief) were there to contrast the tortured roles of the main characters.

-Finally the ending, hopefully you didn't see the PRC version where Lau's character turns himself in or gets caught (I can't remember what the ending was exactly except that Lau gets his comeuppance because the Chinese government felt that him getting away sent the wrong message morally). I vastly prefered the way the Infernal Affairs ended in which Lau gets away because ultimately his lack of redemption has placed him in a personal hell in which he'll probably never crawl out of. His existance is now his hell. Whereas Damon's character gets capped by Wahlberg's character out of nowhere. It's probably the only ending you could give to Damon's character because the audience was never meant to sympathize with him....

I apologize if I forgot the character's names. This is all off the top of my head and I haven't seen either movie in years.

 

[AuthenticM]

Infernal Affairs elevator scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-SOciCRCdo
The Departed elevator scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b66y1LHixqY

I've never watched the original. But wow at that scene. It's so bad. Melodramatic as shit also. Man. If that scene is representative of the entire movie, then yeah, I can see how The Departed is a much better film, lol.

 

[bleaker]

I've never watched Infernal Affairs but do greatly appreciate The Departed. I think this is the classic case of you appreciating the one you watched first though. Plus I don't think you take into account the other two films in the Infernal Affairs series.

Also, I have known about this series ever since the release of the Departed and I am now just realizing the title is not Internal Affairs. My life has been a lie.