It has its advantages and disadvantages.
The advantages deal more with the problems we had in the past. Such as the ones that caused the civil war. IF it was purely population based the South wouldnt have a voice... etc But even today it has its bearing, places like North Dakota would be completely ignored by the candidates. The electoral college forces the candidates to take a more state by state approach. Instead of focusing only on national media.
The disadvantages ofcourse come from the fact that large populous states such as Florida and California can have an extremely close race (such as the one in 2004) but still give all their electoral votes to the winner of the state. This system is being revised by the districting system. Now the candidate will have to win the majority of the district not the state. This could call for "battleground districts"
Anyway the system has worked so far so there was no need to change it. But after the last election and possibly this one it might be time for a change.