Continuity mistake: Clark steps out of the diner and the waiter has his hands on his chest. A shot later his hands are on the counter.
Continuity mistake: After being hit by a cab, Lois calls Clark and the people behind her change in a split second.
Continuity mistake: When Ursa is moving the helicopter around, the sky keeps changing from sunny to cloudy.
Continuity mistake: In the big fight scene in Metropolis, after Ursa chokes Superman, Non descends and wires holding him is visible.
Revealing mistake: When Zod and Ursa jump out of Perry's window they fall down, revealing its a stunt from a ground level window. The outside shots however, show them flying up and straight.
Deliberate mistake: Luthor and Teschmaker visit the North Pole protecting themselves against the cold. Lois manages to wander around with a mere, but sexy, shirt.
Continuity mistake: When Superman is about to stop the elevator, he flies with one arm up the other down. A frame later in a new angle both arms are up.
Continuity mistake: On Krypton, when the guard gets caught, Non's hand is at chest level. In the close-up it is at belly level.
Revealing mistake: Before the villains change the faces on Mt. Rushmore, the original ones (which are a matte painting) have a greenish look. Definitely not like the real sculptures.
Revealing mistake: At the beginning of the movie, we see the three villains in front of several backgrounds. In most of these backgrounds, their outlines are fuzzy, indicating that they are actually standing in front of a green screen.
Visible crew/equipment: When the super baddies arrive on the moon and encounter the astronauts, the girl Kryptonian kicks one of the astronauts into space and you can see the strings around his waist as he floats away.
Answer: In the theatrical cut, nobody really knows why the green crystal restored his powers. However if you watch the Richard Donner cut, it is explained that the green crystal is a communication device that helps Superman talks to the residual essence/spirit/ghost of his father Jor-El. Before he died, Jor-El gave the crystal to his son. Jor-El anticipated that Kal-El might give up his powers, and he also anticipated that Zod might eventually escape the Phantom Zone, so Jor-El lets his son absorb the leftover energy of his spirit, thus restoring all his Kryptonian powers.
Matt Van Gogh