Yeah, I can't understand the dislike for TTSS. It may have taken a couple viewings for it to truly impress me, but even on my first watch I always thought it was at least a better than average movie. It's also got a fantastic score.
But comparing it to Red Sparrow is just nonsense, it's like apples and oranges. RS is competently made and acted, but it plays like any other spy film to me. It hits all of the typical spy cliches and the characters never come alive. It was a decent enough time at the movies (certainly better than I expected after Francis Lawrence's atrocious Hunger Games films), but there's nothing at all exceptional about it. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, however, is one of my favorite espionage films along with The Good Shepard, The Tailor of Panama and The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (funny how 3 of those 4 films are by Le Carre).