The new QT GUI (in git HEAD) has a nifty block-chain-download-progress indicator.
I'd like to pull together a version 0.5 release candidate and start testing it early next week.
Maybe the big feature for version 0.6 can be fast initial download (I'm thinking the best thing to do for brand-new, starting-with-an-empty-wallet installations is to download only block headers, function as a 'lightweight' client, and 'backfill' full blocks until you're caught up with the full chain-- then function as a 'full' client).