I do think they did a good job translating the books to film. Film and print are very different animals, and yes, they took some liberties, but the only really "wrong" thing IMO was when the Elves showed up at Helms' Deep. Well, that and how much screen time was devoted to Helms' Deep.
But on the whole I think LOTR was very faithful to the source material, especially when until that point, adaptations reflected virtually none of the source material (Clancy novels being the worst-case offenders).
FOTR, Harry Potter and Spider-Man was a trifecta spread over six months time that got Hollywood back to respecting the source. For that I remain grateful.