You are so right, the book was SOOO much better. I mean, what happened to the skinny's? What happened to the ape suits? What happened to the bulkhead that the non-com's weren't allowed to go through that separated the men from the women? That was a cool freakin' book. Then again, I liked Stranger in a Strange Land, so...
For those that haven't read the book, the ape suits are basically small mech-warrior suits, complete with jump jets and rocket launchers. They call them ape suits because, wel, they look like apes. A very good read, especially if you even somewhat like Sci-Fi.