Guardians of the Galaxy a Star Wars Ripoff?

[old lady]

My nephew refuses to see the movie because he claims it is a Star Wars Ripoff and he is a devoted Star Wars Fan. Is there any truth to his claim?

 

[smitch425]

No

 

[JustCor]

Short answer: no.

Long answer: while there are definitely themes that could be seen as similar (ragtag group of people brought together to face off against a large group, father issues, space), it's really the loosest of connections that could be said of a majority of the movies out there, especially in this genre. The tone, story, and even the basic plot are almost completely different. I'm a huge fan of Star Wars and thought Guardians was a lot of fun and a great movie, and I'm having a very difficult time finding any connections beyond incredibly generic similarities that could be used on multiple films. He's either not seen it and is drawing odd connections based on pictures, toys, and second hand information, or he's found some super deep connection between the two that I may never see.

 

[The Disney Movie Review]

Okay...I'll give you two answers. One will contain spoilers. One will not. This one will not contain spoilers.

Your nephew is probably referring to some of the themes that are present in both stories. Guardians of the Galaxy is based on a comic book series, while Star Wars is an original story. However, the Guardians comic was written 1969 (according to Wikipedia). The first Star Wars movie was released in 1977. But there are a lot of similarities I will cover in the spoiler answer.

So the short answer is no, but, like all movies, there are similar themes. I wrote a post about this comparing Inside Out to Finding Nemo. Check out the link below.

http://www.thedisneymoviereview.com/10-things-that-prove-inside-out-is-really-finding-nemo/

 

[The Disney Movie Review]

Okay...now for the spoiler answer.

In Guardians you have a hero (Star Lord) who doesn't know who his dad is, gets thrown into a conflict bigger than himself, defeats the minor villain (Ronan) and there is a bigger villain pulling the strings (Thanos). Oh...and it takes place in space.

In Star Wars: A New Hope, you have a hero (Luke) who doesn't know who his dad is, gets thrown into a conflict bigger than himself, defeats the minor villain (Vader) and there is a bigger villain pulling the strings (The emperor). Oh...and it takes place in space.

That's about where the similarities end. I find it interesting he even drew that comparison because the differences drastically outweigh the similarities.

 

[Xenith22]

The original Guardians of the Galaxy comics date back to 1969. So the core Guardians concept actually predates Star Wars by about a decade, although the team featured in the movie did not appear as an team until 2008. However all of those individual characters comic origins also still predate Star Wars 1977 release: Star-lord (1976), Gamora (1975), Drax (1973), Groot (1960) Rocket (1976), Yondu (1969), Ronan (1967).

With that said James Gunn did admit that he wanted a Star Wars type tone to the movie, and really any kind of big space opera with the heroes facing insurmountable odds is going to have some plot similarities, although the plot of GoG is still quite different enough.

 

[xlxo]

Here's the full plot... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2015381/synopsis

My question is how Guardian will tie into Avengers in the coming years. For those that seen the Ultron finale.... there was a Guardian reference.

 

[mickyduck705]

Okay...now for the spoiler answer.

In Guardians you have a hero (Star Lord) who doesn't know who his dad is, gets thrown into a conflict bigger than himself, defeats the minor villain (Ronan) and there is a bigger villain pulling the strings (Thanos). Oh...and it takes place in space.

In Star Wars: A New Hope, you have a hero (Luke) who doesn't know who his dad is, gets thrown into a conflict bigger than himself, defeats the minor villain (Vader) and there is a bigger villain pulling the strings (The emperor). Oh...and it takes place in space.

That's about where the similarities end. I find it interesting he even drew that comparison because the differences drastically outweigh the similarities.

The movie took the lineup from 2008.

 

[Dinohood]

lol no you can say that about anything star was and star trek any video game that has been made I like guardians because it made me think thy could turn the starfox video game into a movie. The only star wars movies i like are the episode 1 2 and 3.

 

[Meeko5]

He's missing out - Guardians is an awesome movie, and Chris Pratt alone makes it worth watching

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Tell him Star Wars is a rip off of Dersu Uzala and The Hidden Fortress.

 

[BrianL]

Exactly, it's not like Star Wars isn't without its influences. The GotG movie was definitely influenced by Star Wars, but almost every single sci-fi movie since 1977 has been. It's okay, and they're not similar enough to claim "rip off." I quite like them both!