1. The movie length was just about right

The Dark Knight felt too long and drawn out, despite only a 12 minute difference in time length (Batman Begins was 140 minutes and The Dark Knight was 152 minutes). The story was more complex with the Dark Knight and Christopher Nolan felt he had to give us more to satiate what we got with Batman Begins.

2. There was a lot more classic lines and comical relief moments

The Dark Knight had an emotionally darker Batman, but to some degree, it became too serious. Christian Bale (as Batman/Bruce Wayne) had a lot more comical relief moments and classical lines in Batman Begins than in The Dark Knight where most of the time he always seemed to be pissed.

Who can forget some of these lines from Batman Begins?

[after taking a ride in The Tumbler]
Lucius Fox: So, what do you think?
Bruce Wayne: Does it come in black?

Bruce Wayne: [about the prototype Batsuit] Tear resistant?
Lucius Fox: This sucker will stop a knife.
Bruce Wayne: Bulletproof?
Lucius Fox: Anything but a straight shot.
Bruce Wayne: Why didn’t they put it into production?
Lucius Fox: Bean counters didn’t think a soldier’s life was worth 300 grand. So what’s your interest in it, Mr. Wayne?
Bruce Wayne: I wanna borrow it. For, uh, spelunking.
Lucius Fox: Spelunking?
Bruce Wayne: Yeah, you know, cave diving.
Lucius Fox: You expecting to run into much gunfire in these caves?

Lucius Fox: Well, what is it today? More spelunking?
Bruce Wayne: No. Today it’s BASE-jumping.
Lucius Fox: BASE-jumping. That like parachuting?

[concerning the memory cloth]
Bruce Wayne: Too expensive for the Army?
Lucius Fox: I don’t think they tried to market it to the billionaire, spelunking, BASE-jumping crowd.

Quotes courtesy of The Internet Movie Database. Although I will note that one of my most favorite parts of The Dark Knight is when the Joker shows the mob bosses his “disappearing” pencil trick. That part was wicked.

3. Batman Got Beat By The Joker

The star of the movie is usually the main character, the protagonist, in this case, Batman. We generally don’t go see a movie to enjoy the supporting actor or actress. That’s not to say that the supporting actor or actress shouldn’t put up an excellent performance, but the lead actor or actress should perform as good or better. In Batman Begins, it was clear that Christian Bale was the star. In The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger stole the show with his excellent performance as the Joker.

Image courtesy of Rotheblog.com.

4. Two-Face Looks Too Fake

With Batman Begins, Scarecrow and Ra’s al Ghul play convincing villains that I can exist. At least the Joker is believable, but I think a better job could have been done on Two-Face’s “look”. I doubt a person could survive for very long with half their face completely exposed, especially an eyeball with no eyelids. How does the eye stay moist and proect against foreign objects like dust? Can you imagine how much difficult it would be to sleep with one eye open all the time?

5. Initial Shock Value

Batman Begins was a complete reboot of the Batman series. No one quite knew the details of what Christian Nolan and David S. Goyer would imagine in the new story except that Batman would be darker. Once people saw the new Batman, that was it, this was the new Batman. Unfortunately like a majority of sequels, the bar is set much higher for The Dark Knight and while it was definitely good, it wasn’t better than Batman Begins.