Lazer Team

I was very excited to watch Lazer Team, they've been talking about it on the podcast forever and it kept Michael Jones and Gavin Free from a few Achievement Hunter Let's Play's which I gladly dealt with in hopes that something funny was on the horizon for Rooster Teeth and it would all be worth it.

I was a paying sponsor for their website for a few years because I've received so many hours of entertainment from all of the content they produce and it felt like they deserved compensation for all the laughs delivered to millions worldwide.

I viewed the movie on January 28th at a Tugg fan event and the enthusiasm of the crowd was palpable. Many of the die hard fans (which I want to think I am)laughed at very juvenile jokes, or just when anybody they knew appeared on screen. All and well, I nor anybody else can dictate terms of laughter, but I knew I wasn't laughing. They had a few good lines in there that were truly funny, but creating a film, labeled as a comedy needs a bit more than sporadic enjoyment.

Most of the acting came off as wooden, which surprised me, these guys usually do very well on camera. Colten Dunn was his usual self (he's very funny in Superstore) and came across as the only character I believed. Fans have seen this writing team do better and any outsiders will instantly recognize this as a poor effort. Rooster Teeth is usually very creative and funny and this film won't change my opinion of their online content but I will definitely be more wary in the future when buying a ticket or subscribing to any services offering their newer content.

Don't let any of this stop you from watching the movie, preferably in a theater, yes it's out on the torrents after it hit Youtube Red, judge for yourself. It simply isn't funny and no matter how many dollars you donated to the crowd-sourced fundraiser, or episodes of Red vs Blue, or Let's Play's, or RWBY, or Rage Quit's, or podcasts you've absorbed from RT, they didn't bring any of that to this film.

I've read a lot of the reviews for this movie, many of the professional ones are nice and cite the "enthusiasm of the actors" for making this movie worth watching. It didn't translate to the movie I watched and I wish I had seen whatever they did, otherwise they're liars.

Let me start off by stating I am a long time fan of the entire Rooster Teeth brand. I will try and stay as unbiased as possible while I write this.

Considering this was RT's first attempt at a movie, they did a great job. Some of the special effects were visible placeholders and could have been improved with the added budget. And while we love the guest castings from the RT employees, most of their acting is terrible and wanting to have such a large say in the movie questionably dragged it down. (I'm looking at you, Burnie.) There's a lot of gripes that can be made, but considering how low their budget was and that the entire movie was funded directly by the fans it can be excused.

One thing to note though is that the entire movie is designed to be a love letter to the fans. Many of the exchanges between characters were filled with quotes and references to other products in the brand and were sprinkled with their trademark jokes. It has all the makings of a cult classic, full of Easter eggs directly aimed at the fans that a lot of people that the casual watcher wouldn't catch.

Overall, great first outing for the team. As long as you go into watching the movie without high standards and enjoy it as the campfest it was designed to be, you'll love it.

When I first saw the poster and the IMDb rating of 7 - I was impressed and couldn't wait to watch the movie. However, I'm really disappointed that the hype couldn't deliver.

Some people argue that the story of "lazer team" could have been written by a child. But this doesn't have to be a bad thing. I found the plot to be interesting. Only the execution was poorly done. Why?

First of all - the characters are boring and annoying. I understand that comedies kind of live from stereotypical over exaggerated persona. But this was too much.

Do you knows this feeling when you're watching a bad horror movie and you think to yourself:"No, don't go there. You'll be killed. No, dude - don't go there.Oh, he's dead..."

"Lazer Team" is similar to that. Very predictable, flat jokes, boring character development. If this were made by a Youtube channel and only aired on Youtube - I wouldn't complain. But as a real movie - "Lazer Team" is just not good enough.

Lazer Team is the best Fantastic Four movie of the year and one of the best action movies in the history of action cinema. Where the big comic book movie failed, this comedy actually has teamwork, cool action and it's fun. It's a terrific popcorn thriller and the best full feature- length film Rooster Teeth has ever created.

When the king Antareans warn us of an impending alien attack, Earth trains Adam (Alan Ritchson) his entire life to be our defender. The Antareans send down a power suit Adam is supposed to wear to fight the Worg, but the suit doesn't make it to Adam. Instead, inept cop Hagan (Burnie Burns), cocky jock Zach (Michael Jones), stoner Woody (Gavin Free) and has-been athlete Herman (Colton Dunn) get the suit in four parts, and they're literally stuck on them. So Adam has only a few days to train these losers to be the Lazer Team.

The plot is mysterious and suspenseful to get the audience's attention. The 3D visual effects and computer generated imagery are spectacular, realistic, it's like you're IN the movie (literally) and it;'s one of the best visuals and CG ever made in movies. It's even better than the animation of Yogi Bean and the Alvin and the Chipmunks film series. The 3D VFX is amazing as the 3D visuals of The Spongebob SquarePants Movie: Sponge Out Of Water and Ang Lee's 2012 adventure survival film Life of Pi. The visuals, however are not the only factor that make this film shine like a shiny laser.

The cast's performances were all well done, thanks to Matt Hullam's amazing direction. It includes two members from Rooster Teeth's Achievement Hunter, Michael Jones and Gavin Free. The main cast consisting of Colton Dunn and Burnie Burns along with Michael Jones and Gavin Free truly make this team the brightest team to face the wrath of mankind's darkest hour. They truly stand out in their roles and undoubtedly make one of the best Fantastic Four protagonists to ever exist and expressively prove that their triumph was no fluke but amazing and excellent performances. The supporting cast is also very good. The director chose an excellent cast and the wisecracks aren't too reliant on cringe or slapstick, enough to make the audience laugh and also feel tense during the climax.

The character development is also quite interesting as director Matt Hullam has these four dolts/idiots substantially rise in rank from losers to famous worldwide heroes. Although they make an amazing and excellent team of heroes in science fiction, the plot however seems to be somewhat based from the 1996 film Independence Day as in that film and this film has the human heroes defeat the alien invasion. Nonetheless, it still deliverers the audience with a dazzling and entertaining popcorn thriller.

They manage to get some real heart-touching moments in there too, especially with a father/daughter story between Hagan and his daughter Mindy (Alexandria DeBerry). The four members of Lazer Team don't get along for some real reasons and the film allows them to have their moments too where they try to bond and be best friends. Adam has some understandable animosity towards the Lazer Team stealing his suit as well, so he gets to have real character growth.

A few of the early jokes really don't land, and even go so far as to explain the joke to the audience (the difference between a drunk tank and dunk tank is explicit). When Zachary gets tazed and falls in the pool, I thought it would be funny if the whole pool ended up zapped, but that's not the joke. I thought he would get electrocuted. I also wondered what happened to Gavin's British accent as he sounds American without his helmet.

The mood starts when the training begins. Lazer Team is one of the most critically, commercially and financially successful films of Rooster Teeth, having funded over $2.4 million in a month through the Indiegogo campaign. It has made it's first world release on September 24, 2015 at Fantastic Fest, USA and it's second Canadian premiere in Toronto, Canada on October 16, 2015 at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival and has received largely acclaim from critics, which has truly amazed me. It will soon have it's European premiere at Film4 FrightFest on October 24, 2015 a week before Halloween 2015.

Overall, The Rooster Teeth team has no problem expanding from Red Vs. Blue to a full length feature. The story does everything it's supposed to: establish the characters, build them up through training montages, and escalate the threat. Everything looks right. The military and football scenes in particular look legit. Director Matt Hullum and cinematographer Philip Roy use really elegant camera moves to make it look epic, except for a few shots that are intentionally shaky. The visual effects are supposed to be a tad cheesy, but they're plentiful and really spectacular as they blast aliens, run with super boots and go invisible with stealth.

In conclusion, this film is slightly flawed at a few parts but overall quite fascinating. It's a job well done to Director Matt Hullam, the rest of the Rooster Teeth team and the visual effects team and this film deserves a five out of five stars. Terrific camera movements, spectacular and realistic visual effects and computer generated imagery and excellent performances from the lead cast: Michael, Gavin, Colton and Burnie make this film a terrific popcorn filled entertainer. It truly deserves a sequel. I wonder what Lazer Team 2's lot will include but whatever it is, it should live up to it's prequel and become a faithful and entertaining sequel like Rio 2 and Sponge out of Water. Colton, Michael, Gavin and Burnie should reprise their roles and I hope Matt Hullam will return as director.

Rating: 5/5 stars

Any film professors reading, here is a tip. You can do a final exam by making your class deconstruct Lazer Team frame by frame and identify the really good ideas and the zippy lines of dialog.

It is quite a challenge. The film runs almost two hours and there is no more than 10 minutes of quality material.

My fave: one of the "dumb and dumber" team removes an alien mind-control implant from the only female star and explains, "I was just removing the implant that made my girlfriend act like my ex-girlfriends." Actually the actor mumbles the line so you have to rewind to catch it. But that dialog is one of the keepers.

A Youtube production? In a way that is a good thing but virtually every other network, delivery system, channel, cable provider and postal worker who is now producing independently has done better work. So step it up Youtube.