Simon Pegg On 'Man Of Steel' Ending: It Was Just Us Seeing Buildings Falling Down'

"Man of Steel" was one of this summer's biggest financial hits, but with that monetary reward came lots of debate surrounding the film's ending, an orgy of destruction and devastation that rubbed many viewers the wrong way.

Like Simon Pegg. "The World's End" and "Star Trek Into Darkness" star told Vulture that there was "nothing poetic" about the "Man of Steel" denouement.

I think science fiction's kind of lost its way over the years, in that people suddenly think it's about the robots. It was never about the robots. It's always been about the people. And robots have been a metaphor for something. And there doesn't seem to be a metaphor now. It's literal destruction. Was Man of Steel a metaphor for 9/11? No. It was just us seeing buildings falling down.

In the interview, Pegg went on to criticize "Man of Steel" for its final scene, which -- spoiler -- treats the previous 30 minutes, where building crumbled and hundreds of thousands of people are assumed dead, like an afterthought. "That was one of the things that blew me away about 'Man of Steel,' that at the end, they're all at the Daily Planet office just going, 'Hey! Let's go see the Dodgers!'" Pegg joked. "Isn't everyone dead? Isn't New York flat?"

Pegg made no mention of "Star Trek Into Darkness" in the printed Vulture interview, but it should be noted that his film ends on a similar note: with much of San Francisco destroyed (though with reference made to the causalities of that catastrophe). That issue -- which also sprung up in a number of other 2013 summer blockbusters -- was addressed head-on by "Star Trek" screenwriter Damon Lindelof in an honest and forthright piece for Vulture earlier this year:

"It sounds sort of hacky and defensive to say, [but it's] almost inescapable," he continues. "It's almost impossible to, for example, not have a final set piece where the fate of the free world is at stake. You basically work your way backward and say, 'Well, the Avengers aren't going to save Guam, they’ve got to save the world.' Did 'Star Trek Into Darkness' need to have a gigantic starship crashing into San Francisco? I'll never know. But it sure felt like it did."

For more from Pegg, head to Vulture.

[via Vulture]