It's so interesting the array of opinions we have on Batman Begins vs. The Dark Knight. My opinion is that Batman Begins has a much better replay value than The Dark Knight, and I think my main reason for this is the vastly different kind of environments we see throughout the film. You start with Bruce Wayne in the Asian prison, then when he's released you get to see all of that gorgeous mountain terrain as he journeys to the temple of Ra's Al Ghul. Then of course you have Wayne Manor/Batcave which I never really associate with Gotham only because it's so separate from the heart and soul of Gotham, not only physically, but visually as well. And of course with Gotham we have not only the typical looking financial district, but we also get to see the Narrows. Now, The Dark Knight really only deals with events taking place in the same kind of environment. Even when Batman goes to Hong Kong to get Lau, it's still a very similar type of environment as Gotham. I love both films, I just tend to revisit Batman Begins a lot more often.

I think this is one of the ways Nolan and Team will be rounding out the trilogy visually speaking. With shooting going on in India for a couple of days, Romania (I believe they're still shooting there), and the return of Wayne Manor and the Batcave, I'm expecting more variety of environments, just like Batman Begins had, except pushing it further.

Just putting my hand up too.

I prefer BB to TDK. I just saying in enjoyment value. I just like it better. Of course, there is no doubt that TDK is an excellent cinematic movie, but just pulling it out of the collection to watch, I would have more impulse to see BB than TDK.

MW715 wrote:For some reason, BB wasn't nearly as popular. I think that's why TDK is often seen as the better film; it got more critical acclaim and gained a much larger spotlight than BB. .

I'm thinking the reason for BB's un-popularity, so to speak, may have been because after countless films about this franchise, some of which are truly horrible, viewers would have lost hope that someone could actually do a good job in rebooting Batman, and hence, don't really care. You only realise the true value of the origin film after you see an amazing sequel.

Where Batman Begins was most successful was in DVD/Blu-ray sales. Once people found out through good word of mouth that it was totally different than the past Batman films and was actually a really good film in general, those numbers started going up. TDK's theatrical run was more successful simply because the tone of the franchise had already been introduced by then and audiences had an idea of what could be in store for a sequel to Batman Begins.

It seems Chris Nolan prefers BB to TDK too, according to the Bleeding Cool interview with Wally from January. Some quotes from Wally:

After re-watching the previous 2 films in IMAX...

"We all had different opinions about which picture we liked better".

"It came down to "what is your preference?' and 'what kind of movie do you like?' and 'what kind of storytelling?', and I really loved the face-off between Batman and Joker"

That quote says nothing about Chris's opinion. He may very well like BB more, but that quote proves nothing.

The quotes imply that Chris prefers Batman Begins.

He had a different opinion from Wally regarding which was the better film of the two. Wally preferred The Dark Knight.

It's not that difficult to understand, is it?

Considering the fact that in terms of atmosphere and the feeling you will get from a movie, The Prestige and Inception are more similar to BB than TDK, and it seems that TDKR is also going to be more similar to BB, I would say that Nolan probably likes BB better. But no one could be sure about that.

The_Maestro wrote:The quotes imply that Chris prefers Batman Begins.

He had a different opinion from Wally regarding which was the better film of the two. Wally preferred The Dark Knight.

It's not that difficult to understand, is it?

No it implies that among the people that watched it some like TDK and some like BB, unless there is a part of the quote saying who was there watching it with them, it implies nothing about Chris. When I first read the quote I assumed it was a group of all the usual suspects involved in Nolan's films. There were probably 8-10 people watching the films.

theweatherman wrote:

The_Maestro wrote:The quotes imply that Chris prefers Batman Begins.

He had a different opinion from Wally regarding which was the better film of the two. Wally preferred The Dark Knight.

It's not that difficult to understand, is it?

No it implies that among the people that watched it some like TDK and some like BB, unless there is a part of the quote saying who was there watching it with them, it implies nothing about Chris. When I first read the quote I assumed it was a group of all the usual suspects involved in Nolan's films. There were probably 8-10 people watching the films.

Exactly. You assumed.

Why would Wally be talking to 8 other people about which type of STORYTELLING they preferred?