I saw it over a month ago (hooray for SWMBO with the advance screener DVD!), and I agree. It was a fantastic movie. Difficult to watch, in parts, because of the violence, but it was an incredibly gripping story. Very imaginative character design on the fantasy elements -- I don't know if it's taken from cultural references, or not. I highly recommend it.

FWIW, I didn't know anything about the film before watching it. I had seen the movie poster outside an art-film theatre on our house-hunting trip, before moving to Portland. The poster drew me in, and I wasn't disappointed after seeing the film.