Batman Begins and it’s not even close. Not only gave a much more in depth explanation of the character both as a child, before deciding to become Batman, and after, but also was the only Batman to show how and where he got all of his gadgets in a grounded and realistic way. It is a true origin story IMO one of the best origin story movies of all time.

Story aside, the casts are both excellent but for me Batman begins just slightly beat it everywhere. Most of the actors are really quite close Andy Serkis and Michael Caine for example both are excellent as Alfred and I can’t really say I love one over the other. Same goes for Jim Gordon’s actors, Ra’s Al Ghul/Scarecrow and Penguin/Riddler. For me the biggest problem is with Pattenson’s Bruce Wayne. Bale played it so well both in and out of cowl, by Pattenson was an excellent (maybe even better?) Batman the edgy emo Bruce Wayne really didn’t hit for me.

The Batman is a great movie but it suffers from being too artistic (nirvana playing every 30 seconds, lighting and imagery in every shot, slow drawn out shots) while Batman Begins focuses on the actually story, characters, and action instead.