I'm a huge Batman geek, and I'm EXTREMELY picky about the character and his mythos. The only two live action films I truly love are Batman (1989) and Batman Begins. Neither are without flaws, but they're close to perfect. If I were to rank all of the live action films, it would go:
1) Batman (1989)
2) Batman Begins
3) The Dark Knight
4) Batman Forever
5) Batman Returns
6) The Dark Knight Rises
7) Batman & Robin
8 ) Batman (1966)
9) Batman and Robin (1949)
10) Batman (1943)
If we're taking the animated features into account, Mask of the Phantasm would be #3.