I'll take DeNiro over DiCaprio

Yes, the CGI de-aging could have been better, but the classic DeNiro-Scorsese pairing works FAR better than the modern DiCaprio-Scorsese pairing we've had in recent years. The earlier era of films from the 70s, 80s, and 90s were iconic masterpieces that have stood the test of time. Why Scorsese lost his mind in the 2000s and decided "I'm bored with DeNiro. Hmmm? You know who would make an IDEAL middle aged grizzled tough guy in MY R-rated crime movies? That lovable teen heartthrob from Titanic and Romeo + Juliet! He looked 12 when he was like 21, and is a scrawny little punk with a chubby face, so what? Cast him in ALL my movies from now on!" is beyond me.

Just try to picture "The Irishman" with Scorsese's "modern" cast instead.... instead of DeNiro, Pesci, Pacino, Keitel, etc., we'd get DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Asa Butterfield, Margot Robbie, Emily Tremaine, MacKenzie Meehan... ::shudders::

It's like if John Carpenter were making an a new movie. Would you rather see Kurt Russell star in a modern-day Carpenter film, or a "popular" 21st century heartthrob actor like Channing Tatum?

Bringing back the classic cast from Scosese's golden age of film-making was a great idea, the problem was trying to have them play the same kind of roles they did 40 years ago and using CGI trickery to attempt to pull it off. Better to give them interesting new material and cast them as age appropriate characters. There are plenty of interesting stories he could tell.