Lazer Team

                           "Is that it?" "No! It's another crashed alien ship, dumbass!"

Internet juggernauts Rooster Teeth have progressed from strength-to-strength in their 13-plus years of providing online content. From their breakthrough, wildly successful and award-winning Halo Machinima Red Vs. Blue, their YouTube empire spread throughout various channels covering everything from comedy shorts to Let's Plays to pop culture news, to their various podcasts which generate millions of views and downloads each week, it's quite a journey from some blokes in their spare time recording voice overs for video games. More recently the company has turned to their massive fan-base to crowd-fund a dream to make their own film and through Indie-go-go and thanks to generous fans around the world they were able to gather $6 million to make Lazer Team. In the tradition of 80's B-Sci-Fi films, Lazer Team follows four foul-ups from Texas who intercept a package sent by friendly aliens containing weapons and armour to defend against an impending evil-alien warrior-challenge. The four man-children include has-been deputy Hagan (Burnie Burns), former high-school gridiron star and abrasive drunk Herman (Colton Dunn), current high-school star quarterback and arsehole ego-maniac Zach (Michael Jones) and dopey redneck Woody (Gavin Free) who become the protege's of the angry, would-be Earth Champion Adam (Alan Ritchson).

Lazer Team has a simple premise that draws clear influence from the science-fiction of the 80's but with many modern twists. The power of social media, wearable technologies and nostalgia play key roles in the plot and character development and it's these moments that contain Lazer Team's strengths. The group skyrockets into the cultural consciousness because of a Tweet posted almost instantly by the youngest team member upon discovery the alien cache (due to his ego) and this in turn constantly pressures both the characters and the military in the film. The constant search for, interaction with and depiction of ubiquitous modern technologies and social media are believable and identifiable, as one would hope from an internet company. And unlike other attempts at converting internet/YouTube fame into cinematic success (such as the Smosh Movie and the Fred movies), Rooster Teeth's attempt has kept the cinematic aspects at the fore and allowed their more signature elements as a secondary element of the film. Cameo's and in-jokes are there, but more subtle than one may expect and keep in-toe with star Burns' assertion on their podcast that this is "the Rooster Teeth movie not Rooster Teeth: The Movie". It ensures that Lazer Team is a perfectly average film rather than a painfully bad one.

The most prominent problem in Lazer Team is the characters, which is disappointing in regards to Rooster Teeth's usual efforts. There's little to no growth, relations aren't made clear until late in the film and more than enough principal characters are insufferably abrasive. In particular the characters of Zach and Herman come off as one-note arseholes, which severely affects the comedy of the film as it can only come from one place, this person is a jerk or this person is a lazy drunk. And while the film is funny, it just doesn't take the comedy or the concept far enough to become a hit. The budget of the film is visible in every shot, for better or worse, with unmotivated lights peppered around the frame J.J. Abrams style, specifically back-lighting. The film contains a lot of special visual effects that just simply aren't good enough and the theme song of the film that plays during the credits is...just not pleasant. But when the film works it is the fun time you'd expect with, the ute-chase and high-school action scenes are fun, and the film is thankfully led by Burns' easy, loser-appeal (trust me it's a compliment).

Lazer Team is a perfectly okay movie, underwhelming as a fan of Rooster Teeth's other efforts but surely evident that they still have a lot of potential to do cinematic good.