Blitzivan: Born to be Reloaded

Blitzivan: Born to be Reloaded (also known as Blitzivan: The Movie in Europe) is a 1997 El Kadsrean science-fiction action tokusatsu superhero film. It is directed by Frederick Lloyd, written by Max Axis and Akira Hisashi, and distributed by El TV Kadsre Films in El Kadsreand Silver Bullet Pictures outside of El Kadsre. The film is the first installment in the Blitzivan franchise.

The film revolves around Ray Daichi as he becomes the titular Blitzivan by his sister Ivy Daichi. However though, things began to tense up when Ray discovers that his sister has a connection with an evil organization that he faces with and must save her sister and stop the organization's leader before they commit their most devastating plan yet.

The film was released on September 26, 1997, and was a critical and financial success, receiving positive reviews from critics and grossing $265 million worldwide against its $90 million budget.

Plot
In the distant future of 2047, 15-year-old Ray Daichi and his older sister Ivy Daichi visited a local mall in Mirai City so that Ivy can check out her new Neo Armor that she planned to upgrade on. The mall soon ran into trouble when bank robbers headed inside the mall in an attempt to steal all the money of a local bank. Ray leaps into action and managed to beat all of the robbers, but one of the robbers shot a laser gun at his arm before fleeing.

Ivy then carried Ray back to their home and treated his wound. While preparing dinner, Ivy secretly poured a sleeping substance mixed with anesthetic at his cup because she will use Ray for her top secret experiment. Once she woke up Ray, the two then started dinner. During the dinner, Ray then drank his cup and suddenly begun to feel tired and passes out. Ivy then carried her to her secret laboratory.

Ivy, impressed by Ray's combat skills when he fought the robbers earlier, decided to turn him into the perfect all-in-one war machine. She first removed Ray's brain and eyes and placed it in a jar, and constructs an all-new robotic body, complete with every necessary and built-in offensive and defensive weapons and created an energy sphere that grants him super strength and access to all the built-in weapons. She then carried Ray's brain and eyes and transferred it into the new robotic body, while modifying his brain to work with the new robotic body.

Once Ray woke up after the experiment, he discovered that his body was replaced with the robotic one, leaving him both shocked and confused, he then asked his sister on why she transferred him in a robotic body. Ivy explains that she transferred him into the robotic body because she wants him to become a hero, to which Ray was surprised. The robotic body then picks up a scream from miles away, in which Ray then leapt into action. He arrived just in time to fight the target; a monster whose made up of different mobile devices, in which Ray finishes off the monster using his finisher, the Drill Strike.

The people who encountered their fight were amazed at Ray's new body, and asked him what is his name. At first, he thought of using his name, but he instead uses his new alias Blitzivan. The following week, news spread of Blitzivan being Mirai City's newest hero. However, this news also caught the attention of the evil organization Makriox, and that their leader Orynxion, was impressed because he now has an enemy to face off with. He's also interested in Blitzivan's reactor, and plans to use it for his future schemes. Meanwhile, in Ivy's Secret Lab. Ivy was preparing to introduce Ray to his new vehicle, the Hypercycle. However though, Makriox's troopers arrived at her lab and took her into their secret base in which Orynxion scolds Ivy for plotting something against them, and told the troopers to turn her into a monster permanently and trick her into fighting Blitzivan

Once Ray headed back home, he suddenly found the house all messed up. He then discovered his sister's secret lab and discovered some folders revealing that Ivy was actually Orynxion's right hand henchmen of Makriox, and that she commited a number of major crimes across the world, leaving Ray devastated. He then hear a call and, using the new Hypercycle that Ivy made for him, heads towards the source of the sound. While there, he fights off a bunch of Makriox's troopers riding bikes as well.

He then arrived to discover that this was actually Makriox's secret base. He then fought off a massive amount of Makriox's troopers and monster army and heads towards the leader's base, only to get sabotaged by a brainwahsed Ivy in her monster form. He then faces off both Ivy and Orynxion but during the process, Ray accidentally injured Ivy using his arm cannon's Hypunch. When he finds out that the monster he fought was actually Ivy, he began to feel the anger within him which only causes him to become stronger. Both Ray and Orynxion fought again, this time, Ray gets the upper-hand and easily defeats Orynxion. However, Orynxion transforms into his Perfect form and the two fought again, but Blitzivan was easily apprehended by Orynxion's Perfect form. He then prepares to finish off Blitzivan but Blitzivan called his bike just in time to knock Orynxion into the base's reactor which becomes his demise. Meanwhile, Blitzivan carries Ivy into her arms and drives away just before the base explodes.

Back in the lab, Ray makes a desperate attempt to revive Ivy with the healing pod, which succeeded. Not only was Ivy revived, but she was returned into her human form. The two then hugged each other and shared a laugh. Ivy apologizes to Ray, saying that she joined the organization was because she wanted to support herself and Ray so that they won't go poor, and that the true reason on why she turned Ray into Blitzivan is because she secretly rebelled against the organization because they would take their operations a bit too far. Ivy offers Ray to transfer him back into his human form, but he declines, saying that after all the events that happened, he decided to live a double life as a superhero instead.

Cast

 * Patrick Cruz as Ray Daichi/Blitzivan
 * as Blitzivan (suit)
 * Paulina Tan as Ivy Daichi
 * Terry Ebert as Ornyxion
 * Hiroaki Fumihiro as Ornyxion (suit)
 * Harrison Reyes as Ivy's Monster Form
 * David Bay as the Cellphone Monster
 * Garry Shimoda as Ro-Hornet
 * Sean De Guzman as Hitmark-Tron
 * Eric Santiago as Knock-Down
 * Akio Hibiki as Screecher
 * Seiichi Naoyuki as Civillian 1
 * Koji Asinas as Civillian 2

Cameos

 * Frederick Llyod as a News Reporter
 * Hideo Kouichi as Himself
 * Ryouichi Andrews as a News Reporter

Production
In June of 1994, writer and director Max Axis submitted an incomplete script to El TV Kadsre Films for a science-fiction action film. Once the executives read the script, they liked it, but advised Max to rewrite and revise a few points to make it more original. So Max rewrited the script and brought alongside fellow co-writer Akira Hisashi to give her own ideas into the script. Once they completed the revised script, they submitted it to El TV Kadsre Film's executives again, this time with much more confidence. The executives actually enjoyed the revised script and settled on a budget of $90 Million.

Filming
Filming had began on Feburary 16, 1996 to August 29, 1996. However though, the date was extended to September 15 due to the stunt doubles often injuring themselves and the amount of technical issues occurred during filming. It was filmed in El Kadsre City, Teenjo, Tokyo, Sydney and Hong Kong.

Effects
To keep the film's budget intact, the director insisted on using practical effects more than CGI. The suits made for the film were designed by El TV Kadsre Film's Special Effects Department. Some of the designs that were intended to use CGI with them were either scrapped or used in other films with much larger budgets. Some of El TV Kadsre Films' sound stages in the El TV Kadsre Television Centre were used for Ivy's Secret Lab and the Makriox's base. Suzuki, one of the film's sponsors, provided the Hypercycle as well as the bikes that the Makriox troopers ride on during the film.

The visual effects were made by CiGiWOW and Zecter Media (though they were uncredited in the credits). The only parts of CGI that were used is for the digital backgrounds and the laser rays that some of the weapons make. It was the last film CiGiWOW made before they were filed for bankruptcy.

Marketing
The film's teaser trailer premiered on the screenings of Planet Ripple, Boys of Uprising and Codename: Lightning. In addition, Hasbro produced a line of action figures based off the characters of the film. El TV Kadsre Films spent $20 million to promote the film.

The film's promotional posters have different appearances depending on the country they were released at. For the El Kadsre posters, it depicts Blitzivan in his signature pose with Mirai City as the background, The international posters depicts Blitzivan standing on Ivy's Secret Lab, with only his eyes illuminating. The posters were designed by The Projectron Group, an advertising agency specializing in producing promotional material for feature-length films.

Theatrical Release
The film was released on September 26, 1997, and was initially screened in about 110 theaters. But two days later, it dropped from 110 to 75, in order to make way for other tokusatsu superhero films. Fans of the film then sent letters to various cinema chains to provide more venues of the film.

On the second week, it was increased sharply to 176 theaters due to mainstream popularity. Word of mouth and critical success boosted the film's popularity, prompting cinema owners to show the film again in their theaters and its broadcast on TV.

Home Media
The film was released on VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD two months later, on November 20, 1997. To celebrate the upcoming release of Blitzivan: 20 Years Later, the four films were released as a Collector's Edition.

Box Office
The film initially received $67 million on the first run, in which the director described at first was "a bit diappointing". But by its second week, the film quickly received $175 million worldwide and after that, received $265 million, breaking its expected $223 million revenue.

Critical Reception
The film received positive reviews from critics, praising its story, characters, special effects, and action sequences, but was criticized for the character of its main antagonist Orynxion and it's ending. The film holds a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes and 77% on Google. Additionally, the film received a postive score of 75% on Metacritic.

Sequels and Franchise
The film's success spawned an entire franchise starting with Blitzivan 2: Type Overload, Blitzivan 3: Dark Eclipse and Blitzivan 4: The Last Act. The following films after The Last Act was released as Direct-to-Video and Television films (though they were released theatrically in some countries).