8 Movies That Incredibly Got Away With Being Total Rip-Offs

2. Star Trek (2009)

Ripped Off: Star Wars

When it came to relaunching the Star Trek franchise after the Next Generation stars hung up their movie costumes for the last time, JJ Abrams basically made a moving picture CV for his future gig directing Star Wars movies.

His agenda was to revitalize the franchise and make it financially viable (and not the reserve of a smaller but committed fanbase, since that's not the key to hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office) and he sought to do that by basically making it Star Wars.

James Kirk was rebranded as an orphaned farm boy wrestling with his destiny, assisted by an older mentor to thwart an evil megalomaniac alien intent on destroying planets. And there's a definite dumbing down of the science - which angered many a Star Trek fan - in favour of more swashbuckling elements.

Still, it worked, so it's hard to argue against.