Siskel and Ebert wrote:

Alien Space Jesus Kal-El is raised by a kindly Earth couple and thereby benefits from the wisdom of not one but two fathers. His alien father has Kal naturally conceived and born to protest his society's convention of assigning everyone a preordained role. He then sends him to Earth to become its savior. His Earth father overhears a neighbor describe the boy's powers as a gift from God and concludes that Kal must never reveal them to the public, because people will fear and despise him. He then dies saving a dog from a tornado.

The boy grows up and activates a scout ship from his homeworld, drawing a small army of superpowered villains to Earth. Kal protects his adoptive planet by bringing the villains to populated areas and waging battles of Dresden-level destruction, pausing to make out with his girlfriend among the fresh rubble of a major city. He finally kills his greatest foe to save four people and is briefly distraught by this one death out of hundreds of thousands for which he is directly or indirectly responsible. He recovers sufficiently to visit his Earth father's grave, expressing regret that he wasn't there to see it all.