The Departed review

It's shameful that I haven't posted about The Departed yet, considering how big of a fan I am of Martin Scorsese. Most critics are exclaiming that Marty's back, that we have a new American crime classic on our hands, and how good it is that Scorsese is doing a gangster movie again. All that is nice and all but it sounds a little insulting to me, didn't those people like The Aviator? (nominated for 11 Oscars in 2004) Wasn't Scorsese supposed to win best director that year finally? (he didn't) Scorsese is a great director no matter what he does, however I don't think that this film is up to par with some of his previous efforts. Some people are even saying it's his best film since Goodfellas, this may be true but I don't think this film is half the movie Goodfellas is.
Here's my problem: I really like the Chinese-made original, Infernal Affairs. Too much so apparently because I kept comparing the two films in my head while watching The Departed; I didn't want to but I couldn't help it. The Departed is a good movie but the story had lots of little things added to each story that worked fine in the original and when you add it all up you get an even more complicated story, more characters to keep track of, and on top of that you have to make sure that your stars have enough screen time.
Now I know they cut some of Jack Nicholson's scenes, but this movie could have been a little shorter or it could have focused more on the cat and mouse game and less on unnecessary additions to the plot. What's hard about my complaints about the movie is that, the three characters that got more screen time than needed were all really good. Vera Farmiga, Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg all turned in great and funny performances but they took away from the main theme of the duality found in good and bad guys. By the way, Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio were fantastic as the moles trying to root each other out. I want to see DiCaprio up for Best Actor this year, he nailed it.
Overall the film was pretty good and if you haven't seen Infernal Affairs you'll love it. It is violent but it's spread out until the end. A small complaint though: I'm sick of seeing digital gore and I am very sad that Scorsese of all people employed the use of it. When people start getting shot at the end of a movie I want it to look real (i.e. use blood packs and on set sparks) don't paint it in digitally in post-production. So there's what I think of the film, go see it and judge for yourself.