TDK was an overly-episodic exercise in freshmen-level philosophical masturbation. At least TDKR had an intimidating villain, real stakes, and some actual characterization. Batman deciding whether he should "break his (stupid) one rule" is not a real stake.
Yeah, pretty much every Nolan movie reeks of pretentiousness but The Dark Knight was off the charts. Nobody said that superhero films can't have subtext but Nolan's pomposity and heavy-handedness are almost comical.
Batman Returns is my favorite because it's Tim Burton at its finest.