I've always liked the Journey, exterior wise it's quite handsome. Ironically, the pre-refresh model had decent materials inside with nice plastics. I think it was because Chrysler was pushing it hard in Europe and knew that people wouldn't accept complete garbage inside when they could easily get a C4 Grand Picasso or Touran that would spank it in terms of interior refinement.
It was the dash styling that was so odd, like Katwalk said, resembled a 80's desktop PC in appearance and failed in ergonomics. The drivetrain was a bit dated (although you could get AWD IIRC) in terms of efficiency but all that has been addressed for 2011.
I think Journey's in a niche that's only expected to grow. It's only competition right now is the Mazda 5, Kia did a rare for them these days mistake and got rid of the Rondo in the states, just when Ford's about to legitimize (in average joe/jane's eyes anyway) the US compact minivan segment with the Grand C-Max and maybe arriving standard length C-Max.
Chrysler just needs to spread the word about this car, it's one of those "invisible models" in a automakers full line. The good stuff that people don't even realize is available. (the similar Ford Freestyle comes to mind....)
The US needs more cheap family haulers. With even Kia's Sedona/Grand Carnival starting at 24K before incentives, there's plenty of space both size wise and price wise for the compact MPV segment here, which makes me further question the logic of GM canning the Orlando for US consumption.
Is it particularly better than anything it's competing with though?
One can argue it's better than the Mazda5 just in terms of power, space, (7 seats vs 6, 5 seats with third row folded vs. 4) and interior refinement, (While the 5 is a very nice place to be, the Journey-at least in photos looks like it'll be better)
The Mazda5 and Grand C-Max will probably have the Journey beat on handling prowess given their platform origins. Ditto for fuel economy with their 4 cylinder engines.