Batman: Revenge

Batman: Revenge is a 2002 superhero brickfilm by Jonathan Markiewitz. It takes inspiration from  and the Tim Burton Batman films, and it is about The Riddler escaping from Arkham Asylum and seeking revenge on Gotham City. It is among the first documented brickfilms based on Batman, three years before there were official LEGO sets of the property. (An earlier known Batman brickfilm is The Batman trailer from late 2002, the creator of which is currently unknown.)

Release information
Upon its completion in 2003, the first screening of the film included an 18-minute presentation, which was the 14-minute film bookended by special features including batmobile animation, raw footage, and a few deleted scenes. The three actual cuts of the film, each with the same narrative, were first shared online in 2004, 2005, and 2006. The initial 14-minute film, which did not include sound effects, was followed by a 12-minute recut trimming several scenes and notably with the addition of sound effects to accompany the music. A 6-minute "special edition" cut followed, which served as an abbreviated version of the movie initially intended to meet short-film guidelines for various showcases of the time. The special edition was long considered missing until an old download was located by Bert Loos in August 2021.

For the twentieth anniversary of the film in 2023, Markiewitz released remastered versions of the director's cut and the special edition, upscaling the footage and reducing noise, using various different programs and processes depending on which worked best for each shot.

Plot
Convicted supervillain The Riddler manages to escape from Arkham Asylum with plans to take revenge on Gotham City. Bruce Wayne spots the Bat-Signal and suits-up as Batman. The Riddler and his goons begin a crime spree, mugging the citizens of Gotham while introducing a new, deadly machine. Batman arrives on the scene, but The Riddler manages to escape and continue his revenge against the Dark Knight, putting one of Batman's closest allies in harms way. In the end of the movie, the Riddler possibly fulfills his greatest riddle of all.

Awards

 * colspan="1" rowspan="1"|2003
 * colspan="1" rowspan="1"|Independefilms Film Awards
 * Best Director
 * Won
 * Won

Features in the media
Batman: Revenge was featured in Fan Films Quarterly, BrickJournal, and an issue of Total Film Magazine (ranked 3rd out of the 50 coolest viral videos), as well as on various Batman fan sites and film sites on the internet such as BatmanFanFilms.Com, BatmobileHistory.Com, Batman: Yesterday, Today, and Beyond, Living Corpse, Fanboy Theater, and Fan Film Follies among other popular sites at the time. .