There were two things that made Batman Begins a wonderful film: the realism, and the character and plot development. The Dark Knight lacked both of these. The realism was traded for the traditional ludicrousness of most action films, and development of the chracters was poor. The plot was non-existent. There are two saving graces of the film: the actress who plays Rachel is a great improvement on Katie Holmes, and the performance by Heath Ledger was everything it was hyped to be.