"The Age of Men is at hand" is nothing to do with Sauron vs. Middle Earth and everything to do with humans overtaking the Elves in racial dominance of Middle Earth. I don't think I ever felt it had anything to do with Sauron, although perhaps that's just because of how much time I spent reading the books over and over.

The books are far, far, far better than the movies, and that's saying something because the movies were still great, although not "best of all time" or anything. I feel the movies left too much out for my liking, both characters and plot-wise. I do agree with Miriel that much of the aesthetics and (by such a massive distance) the music were so much better in the movies than in my imagination. For the most part, anyway (I wasn't a fan of the look of Elves and Hobbits, but I don't think they could have got them as correct as my imagination feels they should have been without relying on animation, so they did the best they could really).

The books, though, are just incredible. I should read them again someday.

EDIT: Wait, the age of men is at an end? I don't recall that about the movies at all. Whoops. xD