SPOILERS MAYBE! Definitely!!
Apart from a few moments where it seemed to drag a little bit, especially after the big shootout (including the first ever Tarantino role that actually bothered me), it was as enjoyable as expected.
What I think it's great about this, just as I thought about Inglourious Basterds, is that it's all very entertaining and even silly, but at the same time it tackles very interesting subjects. It's about slavery, but it's also about friendship, class struggle, justice and, of course, just like Inglourious Basterds, about communication. About creating a character to save your life and get what you want. It's all about how you present yourself to others, with words and appearances being the key.
As for the violence, I think its attitude towards it is fantastic. It's funny and over the top when it needs to, but it's also very hard sometimes. And contrary to what some of you thought, it has to be hard. Why? Because one thing is our heroes killing those racist sons of bitches (the most basic level of entertainment: terrible villains who need to go done outrageously) and other thing is the violence the slave owners inflict on the slaves. If you think about it, the toughest scenes to watch are the Mandingo fights and the dogs, and those have our characters not as participants of the action, but merely as observers. That's what enrages them, those disturbing moments are what makes Schultz throw away his plan for killing that villain. He, a very rational man, prefers to die than to shake the hand of a man who treats people like that. That's why, I think, those scenes needed to be almost unbearable to watch.
I just don't think the movie gives you a great deal of substance after that big shootout apart from what was mentioned by someone a few pages ago: that Django absorbes Schultz, and just like him, he gets away of torture by talking - again, communication as a way to save your ass. Now that I'm thinking about it more clearly, I'm almost positive that after I rewatch this, I'll have no problem whatsoever with that last part.