Despite the UK Blu-ray cover making it look like some sort of cheap Fantastic Four knock-off (even though it would be hard to deny the glaring similarities), there’s definitely a good time to be had lurking beneath the exterior of Lazer Team, an Earth-bound, sci-fi adventure flick put together by YouTube-assisted Rooster Teeth Productions with the backing of a successful Indiegogo campaign.
Seeing four misfits – traffic cop Hagan (Burnie Burns), former friend Herman (Colton Dunn), Woody (Gavin Free) and high-school quarterback Zach (Michael Jones) – accidentally endowed with superpowers bought to them by pieces of an alien suit that was meant for Alan Ritchson’s chiselled beefcake Adam, the stage is set for a film that while clearly shot for a pittance, you can’t help but find endearing.
Sure, it’s a hodge-podge of about 50 other films, and the acting ranges from competent to criminal, but there’s a real heart about it that somehow renders all this irrelevant somehow. The jokes are hit and miss, but enough of them land to make this worth watching, and there’s something relatable in the themes, encompassing everything from failed friendships and wasted potential to aspiring to becoming greater than yourself. When something’s this earnest, it’s easy to forgive it its faults.
By the time the gladiatorial finale comes about, it has become the kind of fun and enjoyable romp that Pixels could have been if it wasn’t, you know, utter shit.
