Really? It looked like your basic comic book movie to me. Tragic origin, become hero, villain shows up coincidentally at the same time with complicated domination scheme involving wacky device. Throw in the random love interest (they even went as far as making up a character just because they felt Batman NEEDED a Mary Jane so badly) and the whole thing just felt pretty formulaic for me...And it's one of my favorite comic book movies. But greatness?
Greatness would be telling something original. Greatness would be telling that story well and involving a complicated web of relationships. It's why Blade II and Hellboy are two of my favorite comic book movies. I just loved how the characters interacted with each other. With Batman Begins we were pretty much following Bruce Wayne around like a 3rd person video game encountering person after person and taking what he needs. I didn't even feel his connection with Alfred that much and the Rachel Dawes relationship felt forced.
That's just one aspect though. The score, the characters, the actors, the chemistry, it all has to fit together like a perfect puzzle and Batman Begins didn't do that for me. I like the movie out of sheer bias and if I wasn't a Batman fan I'd probably have the same response to it as my friends and family which is "It's alright."
Wow was that longer than expected. Let's get back on topic quickly here before a mod shows.