Believe it or not I'm quite pleased with the way Jackson handled the introduction. Though as far as being historically (ahem-Tolkienical) accurate, it's really quite far off, Jackson does the introduction well. As you said, the whole point of the intro is to...
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He had 7.5 minutes with which to work, to set up the world of Middle Earth, to establish the characters/players and to get us all fearing the One Ring.
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So, the minor details in the intro (like where the battle was at, when it was at, how it happened) aren't totally necessary in the movie. The point is to get everyone (bookfans and non-readers) into the world of middle-earth, and I think in the overall picture of the intro he does this.
As you have said he establishes the three main races at the time, and sets them all in a different light.
I don't think many more characters need to be established besides Elrond, Gil-galad, Isildur, and Elendil. Other than that, I don't see the need to establish someone like Cirdan.
Despite the change in what happens at Mount Doom (putting Elrond in there with Isildur), I think it goes to show a lot. It parallels Elves and Men by using Isildur and Elrond. With Isildur's "No" it shows that men can be more prone to the Ring, and the Elves are goody-goodies (Do what's right!) type of people.
This is an effective "addition" by Jackson. I can't say change, because we really don't know what happened at Mount Doom (are we even sure Isildur got there??) But it establishes the power and fear of the Ring, and that such a thing that was so close to destruction and it's end, escapes.
One extra thing I'd like to point out, in that (this might be suited better for later, but I'll probably say it again when the time comes). But here's a photo of how Isildur looks when deciding to destroy the Ring or not, and how Frodo looks. It's scaringly similar, and a great job by Jackson and his team to draw such a similarity...
Just looking at the smile is rather weary. It's that look of "It's mine to have, and mine forever." But more important the smile is each directed at someone. Isildur's smile towards Elrond, and Frodo's menacing smile towards Sam. So it's more like..."The ring's mine and you can't do nothing about it!"
Mor will probably come later when I actually get home and watch this sequence.