Revealing mistake: When Non and Zod break in through the White House window, a black strap is seen attached to each one's body to help them descend safely.
Revealing mistake: When Zod throws a man against the wall in East Houston, the man goes through the wall into a truck. Before he crashes against the truck, wires holding him are visible.
Revealing mistake: When Non flies through the White House ceiling, right before he lands on his feet, the shot cuts to Zod landing safely and one can see that the previous stuntman missed the landing and fell on his back, his legs now pointing upwards. According to the shooting script and the additional Donner scenes, the fall was not scripted and not plot-wise.
Revealing mistake: When Superman returns the flag, the wide shots show he has really long arms and a brown blob where the head should be, revealing the actor has been replaced with a dummy.
Revealing mistake: During the Metropolis battle, after Non and Super go down through the pavement, Non is launched upwards thorough the concrete. Check the people around, specially the cop on the right. They are blatant toys (note the cop's weird arms), revealing it is all a miniature set.
Revealing mistake: When Non punches Superman and he crashes against a metal wall, there's a brief shot where Chris Reeve's stunt double is very noticeable.
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.
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.
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