Neo-Shifters: The Beginning

Neo-Shifters: The Beginning (also known as Neo-Shifters: Episode Zero) is a 1985 Vlokuzuian-American-New Zealander science-fiction action tokusatsu superhero film. The film would later spawn a television series Neo-Shifters, which ran from 1985 to 1988.

Plot
For thousands of years, two fractions of the alien robots who can transform into balls known as "neo-shfiters", the heroic Paladins and the villainous Templars waged in the civil war over the sources of water. This was until the point where both fractions have been reduced to scavenging for water and the Paladins leave their home planet with their spaceship and the Templars follow them in their vessel and successfully boarded the Paladin ship. A battle breaks out in the ship while nobody is controlling the ship, the ship crashes into Roswell, leaving everyone in the ship unconscious.

38 years after the crash, Quinn Foster (Ivanson), a grown-up man living with his mother (Cher), his stepdad (Albano) and his stepbrother (Peyton), who likes to hang out with his friends who are his childhood friend Takehiro (Kayos) and his love interest Lise (Hershey) other than spending time with his family, encounters a Paladin who is looking for sources of water.

Cast

 * Ben Ivanson as Quinn Foster/Magna::Rex
 * Andrew Kayos as Takehiro Nakahara/Atlas::Raan
 * Lise Hershey as Ashlee Collins
 * Lou Albano as Donnie Ford
 * Cher as Gail Foster
 * Jerrold Peyton as Sam Ford

Production and release
Neo-Shifters was RGN's attempt to succeed financially by exploiting the success of Bionicle.

Neo-Shifters: The Beginning was filmed from March 23 to July 21, 1984. Unlike Bionicle V, which had computer-graphics animation, Neo-Shifters had stop-motion animation (even then Bionicle used some stop-motion on and off), which was done by over 50 people and it took 6 months to complete. Some of the stop motion models were later reused in some Bionicle projects (albeit repainted) due to the El TV Kadsre-RGN partnership deal of the time. It was filmed in Capulco, the Vloksville quarry and the spaceship interiors and operation rooms were filmed in Warner Bros. Studios in California.

Neo-Shifters: The Beginning was released in theaters less than a month after the similar tokusatsu film Bionicle V: Web of Shadows. Neo-Shifters: The Beginning grossed $63 million in its opening weekend in the Vlokozuian movie market, second on the charts behind Bionicle V: Web of Shadows. It grossed $294 million that year making it Warner Bros' most highest grossing film, putting The Goonies into second place.

Reception
The film is received with mixed to positive reviews from critics. While it was praised for its costume design and concept, the film was criticized for being the blatant ripoff of Bionicle. Neo-Shifters: The Beginning had a slightly better rating in Rotten Potatoes than Bionicle V: Web of Shadows on Rotten Potatoes.