I have to be honest, I love my apple products and I love Lion, however.... it takes probably 2-3 times longer to start/shutdown than Snow Leopard.
Most likely due to the extra software and features that are available.
I've noticed that the startup sequence goes through different variations than before. They tried to make the transition from the apple bootup graphics to the OS in a seamless way. Overall, I think the effect was done well, but because its so slow, and the processing/reading/writing is taking so much power, the effects overall seem to go by like a slideshow more than a high framerate animation.
I'm using a MacBook Pro mid-2010 i7 with 8GB RAM and 5400RPM 500GB HD.
Lion seems to work better on my new Mac Mini 2011 server, and my new iMac 2011 27"
Still, I've had many problems with OSX lion overall. Bugs in the interface. Overlays of icons I was dragging staying on the screen permanently until you restart Finder, or total crashes of the OS graphics and I have to restart. Freezing while in sleep mode and cannot wake.
None of those problems happen with leopard on my lappy, just with Lion.
Overall, the Lion experience is good, but making my Mac somewhat more cumbersome to use because of the freezing/crashing.
Hopefully fixes come and things get better.
Philippe