I caught this last week.
I liked it a lot, but I felt the trailers were a little misleading to someone who never read the comic. I mean, this thing was REALLY violent, no? This is the first movie in a long time that made me turn away from the screen (when Bruce Willis takes the Yellow Bastard's "weapons" away from him).
But, that's not a complaint. Obviously the cinematography was awesome, but the story was really well-written and acted. Except for Brittany Murphy, who, for some reason, just seemed to be in a completely different movie. Her acting took me right out of the story, but luckily Clive Owen pulled me back in really quick, he was great. Even though they weren't given much to do, I'd say my favorite actors in this movie were Elijah Wood, Rosario Dawson, and Alexis Bliedel. Jessica Alba was good, too, but more than half of her role was just dancing in a strip club.
But, yeah, I'd say this is Robert Rodriguez's best work to date, I wish he would handle the sequels, but from what I've read, it looks like Frank Miller himself will be taking over as director, which may be just as good since he had so much input on this that Rodriguez gave him a "co-director" credit (Rodriguez resigned from the Director's Guild of America in order to do this, very honorable and ballsy, I think).