Eyebrows Raise Over ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ Similarities
For quite a few decades nerds and geeks across the universe have highly enjoyed both the Star Wars and Transformers series. Each of the series have a pretty strong fandom, and have been steadily gaining popularity over the past few years.
On June 21st, Paramount Picture’s upcoming summer blockbuster Transformers: The Last Knight will be rolling into theaters. Over the past few weeks, we have seen all kinds of trailers, TV spots and posters for the film; all of which have added to the hype that has been building up for this movie.
A new trailer for the film, however, has raised the eyebrows of some loyal Star Wars fans, questioning as to whether or not iconic and legendary director Michael bay is copying designs in his film.
One of the clips in question, is in the trailer below. At around the (0:40-0:42) mark, space ships are seeing flying in the sky. Star Wars fans are saying that those ships appear to be very ‘influenced; by the TIE Bombers from the original Star Wars trilogy:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw7APtpzdME[/embedyt]
However, if you look closely enough… you can see that there is an additional fold on the wings, making them appear identical… but they are in fact quite different. It is not uncommon for directors and writers to have similar visions when it comes to films (especially if they involve robots and space), and I personally find it kind of cool that there are some similarities.
Another clip that has some people questioning Bay’s creations is in the second trailer below. A two -legged gun robot is seen chasing after our films main stars, and it bears a similar resemblance to the Imperial Scout Walkers (at the :20) mark:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue7cNNfjCyc[/embedyt]
Now, personally, I can see some very close similarities…. but they are also incredibly different. It’s got a flat head, which actually makes it closer to the ED-209 from the Robocop series. So essentially, one could say that Michael Bay is just holding up with a traditional ‘scifi’ look.
So while some Star Wars fans have begun raising eyebrows in question as to whether or not Michael Bay is ‘copying’ them, I think everyone needs to pull back on the reins just a little.
In today’s world, there are going to be a lot of similarities when it comes to science fiction and especially when it involves robots and monsters. So I do not believe Michael Bay ‘copied’ the work of Star Wars.
In fact, Star Wars recently celebrated it’s 40th Anniversary. If anything, maybe Michael Bay included some nods to Star Wars in his movie as a tribute to the franchise and to George Lucas’ success? Michael Bay is an incredibly gifted and upstanding director, who appreciates the work of his fellow film workers.
So instead of gathering the pitch forks and rallying the troops, let us take some time to appreciate the fact that we get a brief moment of more Star Wars in our life!
Transformers: The Last Knight will roll into theaters on June 21st.
Sources: E! News, Hollywood Reporter
Julia recently published her first novel, titled; Anomic. She is currently co-authoring a novel called ‘Snow Falls’. She has a B.A in Communications with concentrations in Professional Writing and Public Relations. She is also in the United States Army Reserves as a Military Police Officer, and is currently in the process of going back to school for her Masters Degree in Business. When she isn’t writing, she is co-owner of a film production studio called ‘Valentine Productions LLC’ and she frequently spends her weekends acting in films, or being a stuntwoman.
