Les Miserables film ending sucked (spoiler)

I loved the play, loved the book, and got around to seeing the film made recently. Liam Neeson is excelent. In fact, the cast, locations and overall production are great. But the story gets warped about midway through with the introduction of Marius. And in the end Jean Valjean is still alive.
Sacre bleu that pissed me off. I wish the whole movie had sucked.