Toronto After Dark: Lazer Team Review

Rooster Teeth fans are some of the most loyal and enthusiastic fans out there, I mean how many YouTubers have their own conventions? So naturally, when Bernie Burns and the guys started an Indigogo campaign over a year ago, they had no problems raising 2.5 million dollars in one month. With that, Lazer Team was born. Like so much of Rooster Teeth’s content, the entire movie is clearly a product of Burns’ madness as it follows four guys from a small town as they inadvertently intercept alien technology and are set on a path to save our planet. The movie stars Burns himself, along with Gavin Free and Michael Jones who are infamous members of Rooster Teeth’s Achievement Hunter channel, Coulton Dunn (Key and Peele) and is directed by Rooster Teeth’s very own Matt Hullum.

Before I go any farther, yes Lazer Team was made for RT fans. There are cameos from Joel Heyman, Barbara Dunkelman, Lindsay Jones and even Gustavo Sorola. But cameos weren’t the only fan service, the were a number of times RWBY appeared scrolled somewhere, or the RT theme could be heard.  Burns made the movie one giant easter egg hunt. Of course, RT didn’t only reference themselves. True to form, they poked fun at the viral spread of social media, made a number of subtle nerdy references (my favourite was the suggestion that ‘shield’ could be an acronym), and featured an appearance by none other than Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Or course the movie wasn’t all in-jokes and references, it stood on its own and felt like a nod to those late 80’s team-up movies in its mixture of comedy and action. I would love to outline the many technical grievances I had with the film, but the truth is it was just too fun! As a huge fan of Rooster Teeth and someone who keeps up with their day to day content, this movie gave me a chance to enjoy their own brand of humor and storytelling on a grand scale. That said, Lazer Team will likely lose some of its appeal if you’re not the type of person to drop everything when RTX rolls around.