Acutally, the new director had all the same actors as the previous movie (as opposed to the previous director, who would re-cast important roles as they came up), so it feels like a lot more continuous than the previous one.
I loved it. I've even payed to see it twice already. (My girlfriend wanted to go to the midnight showing, and I went with my brothers again the next day).
It was all sorts of awesome.
-kv