Pete The Elder

Well, while the new Batman movie is very good, it's not really a sequel. Nor is it a prequel. They're starting the franchise over, which was an excellent idea considering the last movie could have starred Adam West and Burt Ward in the leading roles and nobody would have known the difference.

POW!

I thought about that, but then you could consider Godfather II a prequal also because of the flashbacks and the same is true with the Star Wars episodes with Episodes IV and V as obviously better films than Episodes I or II. There is also the problem of how to classify remakes, which can sometimes improve on original films, but are not really part of a series. Ocean's 11 and Ben-Hur come to mind.

In this case I am defining sequal solely on when it was filmed, not on its setting in time.

Sequel is a bit of a restrictive term. Perhaps the question should be expanded to look at films that share a common continuity, a common universe.

Batman Begins has no common contiunity with previous Batman movies; there is no overlap between the Burton/Schumacher Gotham City and Christopher Nolan's fresh new urban vision. So, I don't think that your original question applies to Batman Begins? That said, I think that, without question, Batman Begins surpasses any previous tv or film depiction of the Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight, the World's Greatest Detective.