J. J. Abraham created Star Trek into Darkness based on the older version of Star Trek
series which appeared in 1966. The newer version of the series takes us to a
new level where the director uses different actors to act the present
characters. Other new edition to the series is the character of Captain James
T. Kirk. He was played by Chris Pine as a happy-go-lucky character with lack of
responsibility and a womanizer.
Can the movie be considered as a postmodern literature?
Some
characters in this movie are non-human i.e. aliens such as Spock and Khan.
These beings live with the humans normally and the setting of a city in this
movie is ahead of the present city. The structure of the buildings and the
facilities as well as the accommodations seen in this movie tells us that this
movie was taken from the future time. Humans and non-humans work together as
explorers in space seems like a typical occupation in the movie.
There
are several postmodern elements which the viewers can see in the movie.
Firstly, there are the element of irony that the viewers can identify from the
main character, Captain James T. Kirk. J. J. Abraham re-created Captain Kirk as
a womanizer and a person with lack of responsibility since the first Star Trek
movie in 2009. Another character named Christopher Pike (acted by Bruce
Greenwood) mentioned that the rules are made for other people than Kirk. The
Enterprise was taken from him due to his ‘lack of responsibility’ in the
earlier part of the movie. As the movie continues, the viewers can see the
development of Captain Kirk especially in saving his crews.
Second,
the movie was re-created from the older series of the Star Trek franchise. A
term in postmodernism which we call “pastiche” refers to any literature which
was copied from the older version of it. The director took the movie and
re-created it with a bit of his new ideas to give the movie a new look.
Lastly,
as I mentioned above, the movie was seen to be taken from the future time. Most
of the settings and the facilities in the city are high in technology. You can
see it from the hospital scene in the earlier part of the movie where a
hospital bed appeared without any wheels under it.
In short, Star Trek into Darkness is
a good example of postmodern literature in the present time. Aside from that,
the viewers can see the development of the characters especially Spock –
emotional development - and Captain Kirk.