Project Batman 3

Project Batman 3 is the third movie in the Project Batman series. It was released on May 18th, 2017. It started production soon after the release of the acclaimed Project Batman 2 and is infamous for it's poor theatrical release quality and the step up in content and writing from the previous 2 entries.

Plot
Not long after the events of Project Batman 2, Batman receives a request to check out a construction site where criminal activity was taking place. He fights a horde of thugs and eventually gets captured by one of them.

Robin (Tim Drake) arrives at the scene and also gets captured but he and Batman escape and find out that the leader of the thugs was the Riddler and the greater mastermind behind it all was Jonathan Dicksonberg, carrying on the legacy of his father, the Gangster Lord. Batman confronts the Riddler then he and Robin go to find out where Dicksonberg is.

Dicksonberg shows up suddenly after shooting Robin, immobilizing him temporarily. Dicksonberg explains that he is set out for revenge on Batman for killing The Gangster Lord in the previous movie. He and Batman have a brawl which leaves both of them severely injured, however Dicksonberg was able to stun Batman and evade to his base.

Robin recovers from the gun wound and meets up with Batman's body. He takes him to Batman's car and drives him to the nearest hospital which is later revealed to be none other than the Dicksonberg Estate Hospital. After putting Batman in a coma, Robin finds out where he truly is and fights off some of Dicksonberg's goons. Batman wakes up in a zombie-like state after Dicksonberg awakens him early and Robin knocks the sense back into him. Robin eventually finds Dicksonberg himself, wearing a new hat and glasses. This is the hat that gives him strength and is not revealed where he got it from. He would beat Robin and then fought Batman until he knocked him out once again and sent him to the dungeon.

Batman and Robin escape the dungeon and began to explore the rest of the hospital freely. Batman discovers some files left behind. After discovering that Batman and Robin escaped and were sneaking around the hospital, he set the building to explode. They both barely escape in time and return to Gotham City.

After searching for more clues to Dicksonberg's whereabouts, Batman and Robin find a recording of Dicksonberg at his father's funeral. Soon after, Batman finds and puts on Dicksonberg's new hat and he discovers how it alters his body. After passing out from the overwhelming energy, Batman wakes up to Dicksonberg standing over him. He reveals to him that he killed Robin and Batman is enraged by this.

Batman and Dicksonberg have a long fight which would eventually take them up to Wayne Manor and the Batcave. They would jump out back into the city where Batman would engage in his final attempt to defeat Dicksonberg, using his own form of super charging the energy in his body. This nearly kills Batman but it was able to knock the evil that damaged Dicksonberg's brain from the hat out. As Dicksonberg came to his senses, he returned Batman safely to rest and he walked away leaving his legacy behind as the credits roll.

Production
Project Batman 3 started production very soon after PB2's release. The filming started in early March of 2017 and was finished in around late April to early May of the same year. The movie is infamous for it's many filming locations, being the first Project movie to have multiple.

The movie itself originally had a runtime of 1 hour and 35 minutes. There were two commercial breaks added in to extend runtime in the theatrical release however they would be later removed in all other releases of the movie along with a scene that violated the ESRB rating system.

The editing process of PB3 was very rushed and it shows easily. Most scenes have outtakes left in or are left completely unedited aside from music. This led the movie to drag on for long and would become infamous for it as well.

The movie itself never had a script to go off of and the final product suffered due to this mostly in the climax with the final battle of Batman VS Dicksonberg which lasted nearly 30 minutes of non stop action.

There was originally going to be an additional scene that connected Project Batman 3 to Project Batman 4: Return of The Joker. It was filmed and in the scene, The Joker was being transported into Dicksonberg's hospital. This implied the two worked together at some point and explained where he was hiding after his disappearance in Project Batman 2. The scene would have likely played during the part where Batman was looking through the hospital for clues and files, however the scene was never implemented and the footage was eventually lost.

Documentary
There was a documentary filmed during the 2nd act of the movie. It was about the actors of Batman and Robin discussing the movie and franchise along with their experiences and thoughts of it. Unfortunately, the footage was lost sometime before the release of the movie and was never recovered.

Reception
Project Batman 3 was met with mixed reviews on the slightly more positive side due to the wide selection of filming locations and stakes presented in the story. However the rushed editing and poorly executed final showdown between Batman and Dicksonberg were the main complaints to the film along with the unnecessary commercial breaks and lack of pacing to flesh out the overall story.

Robin's death and the expanded character of Dicksonberg were two positive points commonly refereed to by critics and reviewers as it was the first movie in the series to have an original character that stepped out of the boundaries of the previous antagonists of PB1 and 2. Robin's death was also the first major death in the Project Series (not counting the Gangster Lord since the weight of that plot point wouldn't be noticed until this movie) and despite being a bold move, it was well received for that fact despite the reveal being very underwhelming in the final product.

DVD Release
On May 2nd, 2019, the Project Batman Trilogy would be released for the first time on DVD. This would be the first DVD release from Overforce in 4 years.

The DVD contained a slightly edited version of the theatrical version of Project Batman 3, removing the two commercial breaks, an inappropriate scene left in by accident, and the greeting message from the opening. This version of the movie brought the runtime down to 1 hour and 25 minutes and has not been released outside of the DVD version anywhere.

Director's Cut
Soon after the release of the Project Trilogy on DVD, the Anniversary Edition of Project Batman 3 would also be soon released on video and DVD. The director's cut aimed to fix the problems the original had, including the poor editing, unnecessarily dragged out scenes, and more.

The following changes from the original are as follows:

- The Overforce Studios logo and greeting message were changed to the modern Overforce Studios logo intro

- The intro sequence was completely changed to fit the tone of the movie more.

- Some songs were changed/added to fit the tone of the movie better.

- All outtakes and leftover footage was edited out, essentially fixing the movie's major issue.

- The final battle between Batman and Dicksonberg was cut down a lot, removing both commercial breaks and the Wayne Manor scene which cut the length of the battle down a lot.

- A credits segment was added.

DVD Release
The director's cut of PB3 was released onto DVD as the "Anniversary Edition" of Project Batman 3. It contained the Director's Cut of the movie along with a poster, both trailers of PB3, a video of speculation of the movie, a tribute music video to the series, a cover of Heroes by David Bowie sung by Batman, and the full episode of Batman Time Travels from Project Superhero.