It’s pretty obvious that when Star Wars came out and did so well that dollar signs were showing up in a lot of peoples’ eyes when it came time to wonder if that kind of success could be replicated. But then of course we had those individuals that thought they could do more with less or simply try to do less and get away with it. Some of these are at least decent attempts to try and recreate in a different image the same kind of magic that Star Wars was capable of, but it’s kind of obvious that so many of them tried and utterly failed to really grab hold of what the people had come to love and George Lucas had managed to capture. From sex appeal to different story lines to even a rush of clips from the actual movie some of these were just outright horrible and yet were somehow released with the idea that they might turn a few heads.
Here are some of the most blatant ripoffs of Star Wars.
5. Starcrash
Someone was squeezing their eyes shut and hoping on this one since the themes and the ideas that came across as seemingly original were painstakingly ripped from Star Wars and given the most generic look they could be given. In a way it’s almost like Barbarella meets Star Wars since the sex appeal is there and in one scene it even looks like there’s a giant Fembot that’s being controlled by telepathic squiggles that are able to be transmitted through a video screen. Then there are the saber sequences, the fact that there’s a singular bad guy, two opposing forces, and, well, you get the picture.
4. Message from Space
So let’s see, pirate ships, samurai, robots, and a mission from planet Earth that’s intercepted by a different race. If you thought George Lucas was working with a minimal budget then you might want to at least take a look at this and think again since he was at the top of the line when it came to effects compared to some of these films. The whole space chase, the message that is vital to help reinvigorate the desire to help others, and the ongoing conflict that is bound to consume so many before it’s resolved. Yeah, I’m still trying to get the image of the ship out of my head too since it just doesn’t seem to fit.
3. Humanoid
When something is labeled under Tuesday Night Trash you know you’re in for something that you asked for but might not have wanted. It usually means that there’s nothing else on, you’ve got nothing to do, and you might as well veg out. Well, the initial crawl of the space cruiser is a familiar sight to start with, and the young woman walking about the ship is familiar. Oh, and they have almost an exact replica of Luke’s landspeeder as well, so you can already guess that they might have more in common with Star Wars than they wanted to admit. And it would appear the villain dressed like a leather-bound samurai/gimp. Huh boy.
2. The Man Who Saved the World
So this isn’t even just a blatant ripoff it would seem since the ‘hidden force’ that pulled these people to this planet is kind of a way to say the Force made them do it. And then you get to see actual clips of Star Wars interspersed with the other clips, so you know very well that they’re setting up something that could easily violate copyright law, no matter that they’re using it to further their own ends in this movie. It’s like someone decided to redo Star Wars in their basement and then had to find various locations to capture their other shots, or perhaps use stock images wherever they could find them.
1. The Last Starfighter
This is a movie that it’s hard to talk badly about because a lot of us grew up thinking that it was pretty cool no matter that there are elements of it that still pull from Star Wars. Alex is after all kind of like Luke, as he’s always looking to the horizon and is exceptionally skilled at playing on a flight simulator. Then he’s thrust into a conflict that he didn’t know about to start with and become the savior for an entire galaxy. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? There’s a ruthless enemy that needs to be defeated and he’s the only one that’s able to do it because, well, he’s got the gift that no one else has. Plus, the death blossom was pretty cool.
So pretty much all but one of these films were a poor attempt to cash in on Star Wars’ fame since while they all tried to be their own movie only The Last Starfighter really managed to become something else.
Follow Us
