Forget your $250 million budgets and A-list megastars, sometimes all you need to make a good film is a bit of creative thinking and passion for your characters (intellectual property rights optional).

Here are ten times that fan films gave us tributes that put Hollywood to shame.

1. Darth Maul fights (and twirls, and kills) again

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Remember how Darth Maul was the only good thing in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace – and barely received five minutes of screen time before being sliced in half and dropped down a pit? Well, here's your opportunity to get a bit more spiky red Sith love in your life, when a bunch of hapless Jedi disturb Darth Maul's training. What many home made movies seem to do best are fight scenes, and these are some of the best we've ever seen in any film – fan or studio made.

2. Batman v Predator: Dawn of Xenomorphs

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Back in the Dark Knight's movie wilderness years (thanks for that, George Clooney!), short Batman: Dead End made waves online thanks to a mega-twist that saw the Caped Crusader in a rain-soaked showdown against a Predator. If it bleeds, Batman can kill it.

3. A Judge gets back in the saddle

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A tepid box office showing from 2012's excellent Dredd means a sequel is probably never going to happen. However, hardcore fans had their thirst quenched by the moody Judge Minty, about an ageing Mega City One Judge striding through the Cursed Earth. Think of this as Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven crashing into the 2000AD universe.

4. Power Rangers go to war

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A dark and gritty Power Rangers reboot from Joseph Khan, the director of Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood' music video? No, we're really not making this up! Producer Adi Shankar, who's juggled 'legit' films like The Grey with fan passion projects such as this, is the mastermind behind Power/Rangers, a brutal sci-fi war flick that managed to get TV stars James Van Der Beek and Katee Sackhoff to play the Red and Pink Ranger respectively.

5. Star Wars styled like Transformers

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No question about it, this Star Wars fan film TIE Fighter is incredible. An anime-style take on that galaxy far, far away, it took animator Paul Johnson more than four years to put this cel-shaded beauty together. If you loved the style of the old '80s Transformers cartoon series, then this is the fan film for you.

6. Stormtroopers step into the spotlight

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Remember that clumsy Stormtrooper who smacked his head running into a control room? This is what we imagine his life is like away from the Death Star. Debuting all the way back in 1997, mockumentary TROOPS cleverly spoofed COPS as it dealt with the day-to-day drudgery of policing Tatooine. This is an important one, mainly because it pretty much kick-started the fan film phenomenon and mass distribution online. Many a 56k modem took a battering trying to download this.

7. Indy cracks the whip for a remake

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Two massive Indiana Jones fans spent the bulk of their childhoods putting together this shot-for-shot Indiana Jones remake, Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. Their story is one of those heart-warming coming-of-age tales that'd make a great movie in its own right. One day it may well do - the film rights were snapped up more than a decade ago by The Social Network producer Scott Rudin.

8. The Punisher and Hellboy together at last

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Another fan film offering from Adi Shankar, The Punisher: Dirty Laundry got a huge credibility boost thanks to the return of Thomas Jane as Frank Castle. Jane tops Dolph Lundgren and Ray Stevenson when it comes to the "best movie Punisher" argument, so it's a thrill to see him back cracking heads together. Look out for Ron Perlman, too, a man who frankly needs his own Hellboy fan film to happen.

9. Better than the Super Mario Bros movie

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Okay, so this is just a teaser for a live-action Legend of Zelda but it has a kind of epic Lord of the Rings-ian sweep that has us begging to see the whole thing. Nintendo are reportedly getting back into the movies game, so let's hope any Zelda blockbuster they come up can match up to this.

10. Lord of the Rings that isn't 3 hours long

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Tolkien fanatic Kate Madison directed, produced and starred in Born of Hope, an epic look at the Middle-earth residents caught up in Sauron's war. A real labour of love, Madison sunk her £8,000 life savings into the £25,000 budget as she spent six years working on the 71-minute film. Also of note: this is a Lord of the Rings movie that isn't three hours long and split into three instalments. Peter Jackson could learn a thing or two.

11. Spider-Man's Venom really can work alone

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Our third and final entry from Shankar, with True Blood and Home and Away star Ryan Kwanten along for the ride. We were pretty sceptical when a solo Venom movie completely unrelated toSpider-Man was announced, but Truth in Journalism proves it can be done – albeit from a left-field and decidedly sinister direction.

12. Take that, rebel scum

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Rebel Scum does an awesome job of recreating the icy landscapes of Hoth, including some unusually repectable CGI and some genuinely touching human emotion too. No word on whether some of the less open-minded fanboys among us ever got over the idea of a female snowtrooper.

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