As to "missing several opportunities present in the book", I don't see that that's a valid criticism.

Making a movie from a book is always a problem, because tempo of action and running time are always problems. From the context of your post, it sounds as if the previous film also didn't take advantage of those matters. If so, that sounds as if that production team made the same judgment to leave them out.

Telling a story in a novel and telling more or less the same story in a film are different processes, to be judged by different criteria.

You are, of course, entitled to your preferences; no problem there.

Dave Oesterreich