That they not only didn't respect the source material, but actively disrespected it bothered me.
Yep. Neeson had the opportunity to be forever compared directly with Olivier, and one of the reasons I bought a ticket was that I thought he would pull it off admirably. To say I was disappointed in his performance would be a decided understatement. He (Neeson) is a strong enough actor that he's actually carried a number of films that would have been real stinkers without his presence, but I couldn't help but thinking he really was simply going through the motions with this part.