A long time ago—1977, to be exact—Star Wars revolutionized cinema. Not only did it break box office records and revitalize the action figure industry, forever changing the way movie merchandise was sold, but it created a fan base who would show up again and again for all things Star Wars, even when they’re made by Dave Filoni.cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});Star Wars also launched a host of imitators, also-rans who tried to build off the success of the mega-hit. Anyone who saw Orca knows that such knock-offs are to be expected whenever a movie does well at the theaters. But Star Wars was particularly open to imitation, since Star Wars itself can hardly be called an original work. George Lucas drew from everything from Akira Kurosawa to World War II films to fairy tales to craft his saga, which means that there was plenty of opportunity for others to find similar inspiration. Some of them are even pretty good, as demonstrated by these stand-out Star Wars imitators.Starcrash (1978)Leave it to the 1970s Italian film industry to cash in on a copy first. Directed by Luigi Cozzi, from a script he wrote with Nat Wachsberger and R.A. Dillon, Starcrash takes the barest bones of the Star Wars plot and refracts them through a mix of pop culture influences. In place of youthful Luke Skywalker, Starcrash focuses on bikini-clad Stella Star, played by Bond girl Caroline Munro, who goes on dangerous smuggling missions with her doofy pal Akton (Marjoe Gortner). Upon being captured by the lawman Thor (Robert Tessier) and his robot sidekick Elle (Judd Hamilton), Stella and Akton get caught in an intergalactic battle, eventually helping Prince Simon (David Hasselhoff) regain power from the evil Count Zarth Arn (Joe Spinell).Starcrash doesn’t have an original idea in its 94-minute runtime, but it does manage to pack in a lot of glittery ’70s excess. The cast knows they’re making trash and they go for it, making the movie far more fun than it deserves to be. And if that’s still not enough to get you through, then at least watch the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, in which Jonah and the ‘Bots mercilessly mock the hapless hero Akton.Moonraker (1979)Moonraker easily ranks among the worst Bond movies. But as far as Star Wars rip-offs go, it’s among the very best! Famously, Eon Productions planned to follow Roger Moore‘s best outing The Spy Who Loved Me (which also features Caroline Munroe of Starcrash) with For Your Eyes Only. But Bond has never been above chasing a quick buck, so when Star Wars broke the bank, 007 went to space.Surprisingly, a space plot fits pretty well within the world of Bond. In Moonraker, Moore’s 007 goes up against Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale), a rich industrialist who plans to create the perfect society by poisoning everyone on Earth while he and his chosen few wait out the panic on his space station. However, director Lewis Gilbert and screenwriter Christopher Wood botch the premise, filling their movie with dumb bits like Bond getting sick while G-force training and being somehow at his most sexist while condescending to partner Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles). No one even tries to go to space until the climax, but at least we get to see Jaws find love.Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)Painful as it is to admit, there would be no Star Trek: The Motion Picture if it were not for Star Wars. Gene Roddenberry had long planned to create a sequel series called Star Trek Phase II, but when Paramount Pictures saw the money to be made from space-faring adventures, then the studio changed plans and sent Captain Kirk (William Shatner) to the big screen.However, as any Trekkie would tell you, the debt to Star Wars ends there. For better or worse, The Motion Picture has no interest in replicating the simple genre thrills of George Lucas’s adventure. Instead, the movie, directed by Robert Wise and written by Harold Livingston, from a script by Alan Dean Foster, is all quiet contemplation. Kirk and his crew take their time to reconvene and investigate the V’Ger probe, pausing to admire the modified Enterprise and to stare at screens. Even to this day, Trekkies can’t decide if the wonders of The Motion Picture deserve that level of attention. But no one can deny the pure glory of the moment that Bones comes aboard with a shaggy beard, a blue leisure suit, and a glistening medallion.The Black Hole (1979)Perhaps the greatest argument in the favor of Star Trek: The Motion Picture is the existence of The Black Hole. Anyone who thought that The Motion Picture was too slow should check out Disney‘s attempt at 2001-style sci-fi, the House of Mouse’s attempt to cash in on Star Wars, back when they didn’t have the capital to just buy franchises outright. However, they forgot that people like Star Wars not just because it was in space, but because it was exciting.The Black Hole follows a simple enough plot, in which the USS Palomino discoveres an abandoned ship near a black hole. Upon investigation, the crew finds the missing scientist Dr. Reinhardt, who has become obsessed by the mysteries of the black hole and demands that the Palomino help him continue his research—no matter the cost. What follows looks cool for the time, but lacks both substance or thrills. But at least Disney remembered to include a pair of compelling robots, the one lesson it managed to learn from Star Wars.Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)Starcrash may have been the first real Star Wars rip-off, but Battle Beyond the Stars was the first to understand the central truth about George Lucas’ vision. Star Wars worked because blended several genres and sent them into space, which means that robots and space ships aren’t enough to tell an exciting story.As with Star Wars, Battle Beyond the Stars finds its inspiration in the work of Akira Kurosawa, but pulls from Seven Samurai instead of The Hidden Fortress. Richard Thomas stars as Shad, a farmer who gathers warriors to save his village from invaders. Shad soon proves to have good taste, as he chooses his motley crew from some of the best B-movie actors of his generation, scoundrels and assassins played by guys like Robert Vaughn, John Saxon, and Sybil Danning. Even better, Battle Beyond the Stars boasts a script by John Sayles and special effects work by a young James Cameron, making it a knock-off that’s a cut above the rest.Galaxy of Terror (1981)If Battle Beyond the Stars offers a fun version of a cheap Star Wars riff, then Galaxy of Terror is the nasty underside of the George Lucas rip-offs. Like Battle Beyond the Stars, Galaxy of Terror comes from schlock king Roger Corman, who gave director Bruce D. Clark, who co-write the script with Marc Siegler, pretty basic marching orders: give us a horror movie in space.Clark and Siegler succeed in the most unsettling way possible. David Lynch favorite Grace Zabriskie plays Captain Trantor, whose ship the Quest goes on a mission to find survivors of a shipwreck with protagonist Cabren (Edward Albert) and a crew that includes Ray Walston, Robert Englund, and Sid Haig, as well as Erin Moran of Happy Days fame. Unfortunately, it’s that last actor who gets the worst of it in a stomach-wrenching worm assault scene that Corman demanded for the movie to reach its nudity requirements. Unsettling as it is, Galaxy of Terror does show us just how strange Star Wars rip-offs could become.Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)Yes, Luke Skywalker is the hero of Star Wars. But everyone knows that Han Solo is the breakout character, and we don’t get enough of him in the original trilogy. Director Lamont Johnson and his slew of screenwriters tried to fix that problem with Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, which puts a surly scoundrel at the center.Peter Strauss plays Wolff, a trash collector and one-time warrior, who intercepts a distress signal sent by three captured beauties from a crashed space yacht. Wolff travels to a devastated planet, where the women are being held by the lascivious Overdog McNabb (Michael Ironside), but first encounters spunky teen Niki (Molly Ringwald). Despite his better instincts, Wolff agrees to take on Niki, giving him a reason to grouch his way through his adventure, just like an off-brand Han Solo should.Krull (1983)When George Lucas finally started making The Phantom Menace, there was only one choice to play the serene, if idiosyncratic, master who trained Obi-Wan Kenobi, Liam Neeson. But two decades earlier, Neeson wasn’t quite the respected thespian he would become, so when 1983’s Krull had a need for an imposing actor to play the axe-wielding Kegan, he took the part.Of course, Krull has a lot in common with Star Wars, namely its melding of sci-fi with fantasy. Directed by Peter Yates, he of Bullitt and The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Krull follows the warrior prince Colwyn (Ken Marshall), whose marriage to Princess Lyssa (Lysette Anthony) will bring peace to the galaxy. That’s bad news for the creature known only as the Beast (Trevor Martin), who sends its forces to capture Lyssa and destroy Colwyn. Together with his band of misfits, including Neeson’s Torquil and Robbie Coltrane as Rhun, Colwyn embraces his destiny to save the galaxy. Krull may not be as heady as the work Neeson would later do, but its pulp pleasure proved to be the ideal training for entering the world of Star Wars.Dune (1984)According to one of the weirdest bits of Hollywood trivia, George Lucas asked David Lynch of all people to direct Return of the Jedi. Lynch famously turned down the offer, but he was convinced that he should make a big Hollywood blockbuster. And so when Italian superproducer Dino DeLaurentis offered Lynch the opportunity to direct Frank Herbert‘s Dune, one of the major sources of inspiration for Lucas’ movie, he accepted.What follows remains perhaps the oddest movie in Lynch’s filmography. The broad strokes of the Herbert story are there: a planet filled with spice, the heroic Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan), the evil Baron Harkonnen (Kenneth McMillan), a rebellion that shakes the universe. But it all gets retold through Lynch’s perspective, resulting in a Dune that’s somehow weirder than Herbert intended and perhaps the most optimistic movie in Lynch’s oeuvre.Masters of the Universe (1987)Even six months ago, the idea of including Masters of the Universe on any type of “Best of” list seemed ludicrous. But now that we’ve seen the mess that is the most recent attempt to adapt the ’80s toy line, the 1987 Cannon film seems a lot better. Moreover, the 1987 movie may take its direct inspiration from Jack Kirby‘s Fourth World Saga, but it’s clear that the producers hope to cash in on any lingering Star Wars fever.Masters of the Universe, of course, depicts an epic battle between He-Man (Dolph Lundgren) and Skeletor (Frank Langella) for the fate of the galaxy… for about 15 minutes of screen time. That’s because Masters of the Universe may have a huge budget for a Cannon movie, but it is still a Cannon movie, which means much of the action actually takes place in suburban California. There, He-Man and annoying not-Orko Gwildor (Billy Barty) hang around with Julie (Courteney Cox) and Kevin Corrigan (played not by actor Kevin Corrigan, but by Star Trek: Voyager‘s Robert Duncan McNeill), making the action decidedly not a long time ago and not in a galaxy far away.The post 10 Star Wars Rip-Offs That Are Actually Pretty Good appeared first on Den of Geek.