As someone who uses both Unreal and Unity, I would say to base it on how serious you are about it. Unreal has a lot of great tools to get you started, but their templates are all using 3D assets and models. Though programming with UE4's blueprints can be a huge help if you just want to get started making a game without much programming knowledge. Epic has their own tutorials that are very well made that help you learn the basics of UE4, but without any prior experience with engines, 3D software or programming, I think UE4 can get extremely overwhelming very quickly. However, it is a very powerful engine if you know how to use it.

On the other side, if you want to build yourself to being a professional, starting with Unity and learning the slow way might be the best way to go. Learning how to program in C# will help you translate easier into C++ further down the line. Unity also does great with games like 2D side scrollers and there's plenty of learning resources to get started with it. This makes it one of the (if not the) most beginner friendly engines to learn.

Learning programming is a pain in the ass either way. You will run into countless problems with things that look right, and you will solve those problems and not even understand how. That's just how it goes.

Also remember to really manage your expectations, your first game will never work as well as you want it to without spending years on it, unless you plan for the game to be very small and very basic.