imperialscum said:
Taking a few story concepts, such as uptight princess rescue element really isn’t much of a Kurosawa rip-off. It is pretty much an element found in ever third fairytale.Character such as Vader and Tarkin in my opinion relatively very unique. Not to mention all the other relatively unique stuff and concepts such as death star, the force, lightsabres, spaceship designs, stormtroopers designs, creatures, etc. I said “relatively” because one way or another you can find something similar somewhere and start a petty argument.
On the other hand, TFA directly copied stuff.
Lucas also directly copied many other people. Often times more than just similarities. Some mentioned here may have been inspiration, others are direct lifts.
http://www.moongadget.com/origins/index.html
As I said, the world is so big that you can find something similar somewhere and start a petty argument. That is what this is. I am sure he wasn’t even aware of any of this. Especially French comics.