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the audience was too stupid to get the idea that war is a waste of young people
There are a lot of stupid people. I've not seen the older films or read the book but I certainly got the bleakness and pointlessness messages, I certainly felt for poor Paul and the "friend dies, try to mourn briefly, no time get sent to fight more, repeat" theme felt purposeful rather than poor character building, I thought it was very good overall.
I thought it skipped key scenes for no good reason, added new scenes about politicians in case the audience was too stupid to get the idea that war is a waste of young people (something the original story does just fine), and did a poor job of character building in general.