Skip to main content
Tech Radar TechRadar the technology experts
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
RSS
Asia
flag of Singapore
Singapore
Europe
flag of Danmark
Danmark
flag of Suomi
Suomi
flag of Norge
Norge
flag of Sverige
Sverige
flag of UK
UK
flag of Italia
Italia
flag of Nederland
Nederland
flag of België (Nederlands)
België (Nederlands)
flag of France
France
flag of Deutschland
Deutschland
flag of España
España
North America
flag of US (English)
US (English)
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of México
México
Australasia
flag of Australia
Australia
flag of New Zealand
New Zealand
  • Phones
  • Computing
  • TVs
  • AI
  • Streaming
  • Health
  • Audio
  • VPN
  • More
    • Cameras
    • Home
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Opinion
    • How to
    • Versus
    • Deals
    • Coupons
    • Best
Tech Radar Pro
Tech Radar Gaming
Trending
  • Amazon Prime Day
  • Smart Home Week
  • Nintendo Switch 2
  • Best VPN
  • ChatGPT
  • Best web hosting
  • NYT Wordle today
  • Best laptop

Recommended reading

Darth Vader reaches out to Luke in The Empire Strikes Back, one of the most notable entries in our Star Wars movies in order guide
Disney Plus How to watch the Star Wars movies in order: chronological and release date
Rick Moranis and Marcia Strassman look at teaspoon while holding a magnify glass
Streaming 5 of my favorite silly sci-fi movies I recommend streaming this April Fool’s Day
Ray tracing in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Gaming The best Star Wars games 2025 - galactic thrills for all
Ahsoka Tano holds up one of her lightsabers in her standalone Star Wars TV show on Disney Plus
Disney Plus New Star Wars movies and Disney+ shows explained, plus known release dates
Best Star Wars Day Deals
Entertainment Best Star Wars Day 2025 Deals – Shop new Lego sets, Funko Pops, Galaxy-themed tech, and more for May the 4th
Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford in a poster for Star Wars: A New Hope
Hulu 5 new Hulu movies with over 91% on Rotten Tomatoes arriving in May 2025
A close up of Sydney Chandler's Wendy in Alien: Earth
Hulu FX has birthed a new teaser trailer for Alien: Earth – here are 5 of my favorite sci-fi shows to watch on Hulu and Disney+ while you wait
  1. Streaming
  2. Entertainment

The 8 most entertaining Star Wars rip-offs

News
By Stephen Lambrechts published 15 December 2015

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

The 8 most entertaining Star Wars rip-offs

The 8 most entertaining Star Wars rip-offs

With every game-changing film event that has come along in the history of blockbuster cinema, whether it be Jaws, Mad Max, The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, X-Men or The Hunger Games, a legion of copycat films have followed closely behind.

When Star Wars was released in 1977, shattering every box-office record that came before it, filmmakers and studios the world over sat up and took notice. Before too long, cheap space opera clones started to appear with alarming frequency.

Though not all Star Wars rip-offs are worth watching, some of these films are just too entertaining (or hilariously terrible) to ignore.

Will we get a series of new cheapo knock-offs after the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens? If they're as fun as these 8 films, we certainly hope so. With that in mind, we present you with the most entertaining Star Wars rip-offs ever made.

Page 1 of 9
Page 1 of 9
1. Starcrash (1978)

1. Starcrash (1978)

Made as a quick and cheap attempt to cash in on the Star Wars craze, Starcrash transcends its obvious budgetary limitations to become a truly enjoyable piece of shlock that shows a decent amount of actual creativity from its director, Luigi Cozzi. Led by the beautiful Stella Star (Caroline Munro), a group of smugglers (including a weird droid-looking alien and a laser-sword-wielding sidekick) undertake a mission from the Emperor of the Galaxy (Christopher Plummer in cheque-cashing mode) to rescue his son (played by a young and luxuriously coifed David Hasselhoff) from the evil Count Zarth Arn (the late, great Joe Spinell). Much inexplicableness occurs, but you'll be having too much fun to care.

Page 2 of 9
Page 2 of 9
2. Message From Space (1978)

2. Message From Space (1978)

Directed by Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale, Battles Without Honor and Humanity), this tongue-in-cheek Star Wars send-up also takes inspiration from classic Kabuki theatre. Though it features the usual assortment of space battles, laser blasters and droids, Message from Space takes Star Wars' Kurosawa influence a step further by introducing space samurai into the mix. The film's hero is played by Vic Morrow (The Bad News Bears) and Sonny Chiba (Kill Bill) plays its evil Darth Vader surrogate, Hans. Also, keep your eyes peeled for a young Chris Isaak in his first on-screen appearance.

Page 3 of 9
Page 3 of 9
3. Masters of the Universe (1987)

3. Masters of the Universe (1987)

Though the toys and cartoon it was based on were mostly rooted in fantasy, the producers of the live-action He-Man film, Masters of the Universe, saw fit to capitalise on the Star Wars craze (a few years too late, at that) by injecting it with an obvious space opera sensibility. Suddenly, the evil Skeletor (Frank Langella) became a Darth Vader-like figure with an army of black-clad, Vader-looking, laser-shooting storm troopers at his disposal. Still, there's plenty to like about this cheesy adaptation in which He-Man (a miscast Dolph Lundgren) and his pals are transported to Earth in the 1980s. Look out for a young Courtney Cox as the teenager tasked with helping our heroes retrieve the Cosmic Key, the McGuffin which will help them get back home.

Page 4 of 9
Page 4 of 9
4. Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

4. Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

Made by Roger Corman's New World Pictures on a minuscule budget, Battle Beyond the Stars is packed to the brim with droids, aliens, space battles, lasers and all the other stuff that every good Star Wars rip-off should be able to boast. Its Seven Samurai inspired plot sees a young farmer recruit mercenaries to help defend his planet from an evil tyrant's forces. Though the film was marketed to a family crowd, Corman couldn't help but fill the movie with his trademark sexual references and innuendo, including one ship which actually has boobs. Featuring buckets of adventure, spirited characters and detailed model ships created by a young James Cameron, Battle Beyond the Stars is easy to recommend.

Page 5 of 9
Page 5 of 9
5. The Man Who Saves the World (1982)

5. The Man Who Saves the World (1982)

Better known as Turkish Star Wars, The Man Who Saves the World (geez, spoiler alert) sits squarely in the 'so bad it's good' category of cinematic atrocities. Armed with a bunch of terrible costumes, a few old cameras, heaping helpings of stolen footage from Star Wars and other popular films, and the kind of completely nonsensical script that a particularly slow child would scribble down, director Çetin Inanç (Turkish Rambo) managed to achieve the kind of perversely entertaining gibberish that only those gifted with anti-talent could accidentally conjure. Any film that proclaims baffling things like "thousands of years passed, and the solar system was replaced with the galaxy system" during its opening narration is surely worthy of analysis from the world's finest film scholars (and psychologists).

Page 6 of 9
Page 6 of 9
6. Star Odyssey (1979)

6. Star Odyssey (1979)

Okay, so not every sci-fi epic can afford lightsaber effects, but would you settle for some cardboard swords with fluorescent paint on them? Star Odyssey is the kind of movie that is either insufferable or hilarious, depending on your mood while watching. Like Starcrash, Star Odyssey is an Italian cash-in on the Star Wars craze, only director Alfonso Brescia has neither the talent nor the enthusiasm of the former film's director, Luigi Cozzi. Apart from its flashy swords, Star Odyssey has other things in common with Star Wars – both films feature an intergalactic overlord hell-bent on ruling the galaxy, and Star Odyssey even continues the Star Wars tradition of using 'parsec' in an incorrect manner!

Page 7 of 9
Page 7 of 9
7. Space Raiders (1983)

7. Space Raiders (1983)

A long time ago, in a video store far, far away, long before Joss Whedon gave us the likes of Firefly and Serenity, people looking for something in the vein of a Han Solo spin-off had to settle for Space Raiders. The film, which features a familiar sounding "last-ditch hero and his alien crew," is actually quite entertaining in a B-grade sort of way, with a moderate level of scope and some enjoyable characters and effects. As a kid, it was easy to get swept up in Space Raiders' story, which sees a 10-year-old spaceship stowaway taken on a trip to the far reaches of the galaxy with a band of space pirates. This Roger Corman production is considered by many to be an unofficial sequel of sorts to Battle Beyond the Stars, so if you like enjoyable trash, you could do much worse than a double-bill of these two space flicks.

Page 8 of 9
Page 8 of 9
8. Starchaser: The Legend Of Orin (1985)

8. Starchaser: The Legend Of Orin (1985)

This animated space opera has Star Wars written all over it. Featuring gorgeous Ralph Bakshi-style rotoscoped animation, Starchaser: The Legend of Orin tells the story of a chosen one who teams up with a space pirate to free the galaxy from the tyranny of an evil warlord using a sword made of light. Sound familiar? Though it sounds very by-the-numbers, Starchaser is notable for being one of the first animated films to employ computer graphics for its many space battles, and also one of the first to be released in 3D.

Page 9 of 9
Page 9 of 9
TOPICS
Star Wars
Stephen Lambrechts
Stephen Lambrechts
Social Links Navigation
Senior Journalist, Phones and Entertainment

Stephen primarily covers phones and entertainment for TechRadar's Australian team, and has written professionally across the categories of tech, film, television and gaming in both print and online for over a decade. He's obsessed with smartphones, televisions, consoles and gaming PCs, and has a deep-seated desire to consume all forms of media at the highest quality possible. 

He's also likely to talk a person’s ear off at the mere mention of Android, cats, retro sneaker releases, travelling and physical media, such as vinyl and boutique Blu-ray releases. Right now, he's most excited about QD-OLED technology, The Batman and Hellblade 2: Senua's Saga.

Read more
Darth Vader reaches out to Luke in The Empire Strikes Back, one of the most notable entries in our Star Wars movies in order guide
How to watch the Star Wars movies in order: chronological and release date
Rick Moranis and Marcia Strassman look at teaspoon while holding a magnify glass
5 of my favorite silly sci-fi movies I recommend streaming this April Fool’s Day
Ray tracing in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
The best Star Wars games 2025 - galactic thrills for all
Ahsoka Tano holds up one of her lightsabers in her standalone Star Wars TV show on Disney Plus
New Star Wars movies and Disney+ shows explained, plus known release dates
Best Star Wars Day Deals
Best Star Wars Day 2025 Deals – Shop new Lego sets, Funko Pops, Galaxy-themed tech, and more for May the 4th
Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford in a poster for Star Wars: A New Hope
5 new Hulu movies with over 91% on Rotten Tomatoes arriving in May 2025
Latest in Entertainment
Ryan Gosling wears an astronaut suit in First Man
New Ryan Gosling sci-fi movie Project Hail Mary gets first poster – and it looks like Interstellar
The Social Network
‘I blame Facebook’: Aaron Sorkin is writing a Social Network sequel for the post-Zuckerberg era
Promotional image showing five James Bond actors to mark Bond's move to Amazon MGM studios
‘I can’t believe I’m excited for a Bond movie again’: Amazon’s bold new direction for 007 has fans talking
Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards in a superhero pose with an explosion going off in the background in The Fantastic Four: First Steps
The final trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps is here – and I'm growing increasingly concerned about one character's fate in the Marvel movie
Jake Paul and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in their face off for their fight on 28 July.
How to watch Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr live on DAZN
Sione Katoa of the Sharks scores a try during the NRL Preliminary Final match between the Penrith Panthers and the Cronulla Sharks
NRL Premiership live stream 2025: how to watch rugby online, FREE options, streaming guide
Latest in News
Apple iPhone 16 Review
This ‘meh’ iPhone 17 Air camera tip might give us more insight than meets the eye
A Tesla car, James Bonds and Samsung's foldable promo image
ICYMI: the week's 7 biggest tech stories from Tesla finally launching robotaxis (kinda) and Samsung's foldables teaser
Verizon logo on a building with blue sky above
Hackers claim to be selling 61 million Verizon records online, but it might not be what it seems
Xiaomi YU7
More bad news for Tesla – Xiaomi's new Model Y rival beats it on price and just smashed pre-order records
AI model distillation
Cybercriminals are abusing LLMs to help them with hacking activities
Malware attack virus alert , malicious software infection , cyber security awareness training to protect business
ClickFix fake error message malware spikes over 500%, takes second place as the most abused attack vector
LATEST ARTICLES
  1. 1
    ICYMI: the week's 7 biggest tech stories from Tesla finally launching robotaxis (kinda) and Samsung's foldables teaser
  2. 2
    I tested out the new Geekom A5 2025 Edition - and while it won't win any awards for performance, this mini PC is cheap and powerful enough for the office
  3. 3
    Is my garden suitable for a robot lawn mower?
  4. 4
    I'm tempted by this huge 57-inch dual 4K curved monitor but I'll definitely have to get a bigger desk
  5. 5
    5 ways you could use AI for help and support

TechRadar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Contact Us
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Web notifications
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...