| Overall Grade: |
B- |
|
| Story: |
A |
|
|
| Acting: |
B |
|
|
| Direction: |
C- |
|
|
| Visuals: |
D+ |
|
|
comparison of the departed with the original
by ALEX (movies profile)
Nov 29, 2007
67
of
85 people found this review helpful
Two years ago, I borrowed the movie "Infernal Affiars" out of curiousity from one of my chinese friends. I instantly liked the movie after i watched it at home. Although the movie gets in really deep, and sometimes i have to keep turning back to understand the movie, it was a very good movie and makes you think alot afterwards. I immedietly borrowed the second episode and watched it which was also very good. However, the third episode that i have just watched a few weeks ago were not that great, it dosent have any story, it is filled with flashbacks of the past two episodes, and it was just plain confusing.(I actually think that they just made that one because they had made so much money from the previous two episodes and they didnt want to let go on the money oppurtunity, even though there is already no more story to tell.) I enjoy watching foriegn movie sometimes, and i do not mind the subtitles, i personally think that subtitles are better because ateaslt we are listening to the real voice, and not some voice added later and the mouth motion dosent even match!
I went to watch the departed last night, not because of the all star cast, but because i was curious to see how the remake of one of my favorite foreign movies was like. They both were good movies, but i think infernal affairs are probably more into the think side whereas the departed are more into the graphic side that tends to suit the majority of the American audiences better.(I personally think that it is very lame to judge a movie by it's cast.) But anyways, now i will try to compare the departed with its original "infernal affairs" from what i have remembered while watching it two years ago.
In no particular order:
1. I think the story line does not fit the American law enforcement side that well. Many parts of the movie does not make sense in the American society.
2. The departed has way too much graphic and verbal violence and sex compare to Infernal affairs, i think the movie should focus on the story rather than the violence, cursing, and sex.
(But dont get me wrong, i still like sex, but just not in this kind of movies, i will go watch a porno movie for that.)(And was Jack's character really eating the meat of the cut off hand in that part of the movie??)
3. The first about an hour part of the movie was kind of confusing, i got cofused in the beggining and though that all the little boys is the same person. And how can someone rise to a top detetive or something that fast after just graduating from the academy like one or two years ago??
4. The end was too fast, it seems like they are just packing everything on the last 20 minutes of the movie, whereas in "infernal affairs" they actually had a second and third episode explaining everything.
5. The movie departed has alot of enexplained parts, such as who was holding the shoot gun when they were dealing the micro-processors, and how they they got out, and who got stoped and search and etc.. It also dosent make sense that Matt's character deleted leonard's characters files in the police data base and though no one were gonna know, but the reality is that the other captin is still alive on vocation somewere, in the orignal "Infernal Affairs", There was actually only one captain that knew about leonards identity,(and another old one died a while ago i think.) so when matt's character in the original deleted the file of leonoard's character, no one knew he was a cop anymore. In the original, it both took them about 10 years to get to the point they were in, which in my opinion, is more realistic. And what the hell was in the envelope that Leonard's character gave to the psychiatrist???
6. And yes, i did mistaken for the longest time and thought "infernal affairs" was called "internal affairs" as to the internal affairs department in the police department. But i just found out recently that it meant in chinese the infernal hell, which is some buddist belief of something bad a person does and well get cast into infernal hell.
7. And that one guy that gave the wrong adresss to leonard's character is a boston city policeman i think, whereas leonard's character is from the states troopers, so they didnt know about each other. In the orginal "infernal affairs", the guy that died was actually the leonard's characters higher boss.(I think in triad mafias they have ranks as to someone recruiting someone and is therefore the person's boss and so on, so the gangs has many ranks.)
8. In the orignal, both leonard and matt's character has a different girlfriend, leonard's character's girlfriend in the original is actually the psychiatrist which eventually they fall in love with each other and leonard's character told her the truth about him, in the orginal, leonard's character will feel the safest get the best rests while in the psychiatrsts clinic. I think this part which the departed combined the two women into one actually made the movie more exciting, but it will elimainate the oppurtunity to tell more story in later episodes. (which i dont think the departed is intend to do so anyways, unlike infernal affairs.)
9. And why will a Big mafia boss that deals secret government technology go on a drug transporting mission himself, can somebody tell me please???
10. The departed does not get into the deep emotions and the feelings of the character except perhapes a little on leonard's character. Although Martin Scorsese got the basic story line and the main twists, i really think he missed alot of the interesting and meaningful points that the original movie had.
11. Matt is really not a bad actor, In my opinion, because his character built alot of hatred from the audiences, many people started to dislike him from this film. (In the original "infernal affairs", Matt's character does not die even though on the third episode he tried to killhimself and failed. He eventually wants to be good and live a normal life, but it was too late, he had to stay alive and deal with all the embrassment from everyone including his wife.) In the departed, matt's character's only embarassment was when he tried to touch the neighbors dog and it got pulled away, and he dies, and there was that rat crawling on the window that is pretty stupid......
12. When leonard's character dies, which was when he got shot in the head, it went by so fast and other things started happening that it dosent even seem like the death of one of the main characters. (Even the captian got a longer pause shot after he died.) and others started dying right after leonord's character dies that the audience didnt even get a chance to grasp in what had just happened.(I was annoyed at that part because many people in the threater actually started to laugh, i really dont understand why people will laugh at a tragic scene.) In the original, the leonard character got a long pause shot after he died, and it gave the audience some time to take in what had just happened and think for a litle bit before more events started to happen.
But all in all, the departed was a good movie by itself, although there is way too much crusing and discriminations in it.
I will definitly recommand you to go rent all three of the original "infernal affairs" and watch it from episode one. I watched the hk version myself, but i think the American version by Miramax actually has a sexy girl on the cover that is not even in the movie, haha, what the hell is miramax thinking.... anyways, but both are the same, and i read online yesterday about some different ending in the mainland china version i think. Anyways, i personally think that the original "infernal affairs" gets you to think more after you watch it. but it is at the same time more boring graphically.
sorry if my grammar and spelling is poor or the things i said is not in order, i just wrote along as i thought. |
My Public Profile 
