Why are Old movies better then the Majority of movies we have Today?

[Sky High]

Oh. Well then I guess I was right to put off watching them. Can’t say I liked fury road at all proabbly the dullest movie I’ve seen in theatres as I don’t really care for car chases and explosions instead of plot.

.... okay? if you're so hung up on that shit then yes, you probably WOULD enjoy the first one the most.

[shaunika123]

OP is right thought. Think of any really good or even great movie that was released past the last 15 years and compare them to those that were released in 90-80th. There is no movies of Terminator/Die Hard caliber. You can pull of whatever the best movie of the last 15 years bar few (LotR etc) and it still would suck in comparison to Robocop or Rambo or Back to the Future or shit.

mad max: fury road?
blade runner 2049?
Whiplash?
No country for old men?
There will be blood?


honestly anyone who says there arent great movies today should stop watching marvel movies exclusively.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

.... okay? if you're so hung up on that shit then yes, you probably WOULD enjoy the first one the most.

Ah, that sounds good.

[McFuu]

Different mind set really. Back then a good movie sold better, studios were more willing to take a chance on something original because people would see it. Now people are buried under a mountain of media and entertainment. Good movies are ignored for movies that are going to put people in the seats with quick and easy pure entertainment.
So while we won't get to see movies arrive out of no where, like Indiana Jones, ET, Ghost Busters, it's not that those ideas don't exist or aren't being put into movie form. A big part is they aren't being thrown in our face with hundred million marketing campaigns and Netflix exclusivity.

People haven't changed, the business and availability have.

[lummiuster]

80's, 90's, early 2000's

Why are the movies from those times so much better than the majority of movies we have today?

First of all let me say that is entirely possible that is all just nostalgia. But i dont like to think this is true.
I think we have enough critical thinking to differenciate "nostalgia" from "quality".

Also, i'm not saying there is no good films nowadays. There are good movies from this time.
Also not saying there were no bad movies back then. Ofcourse there was.

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Now, with that out of the way. (feel free to say is nostalgia if you want)
If you believe that movies were better back then, please help me discover the reason why.

Some random ideas i have:
For some reason i believe people from those times were simply "more imaginative" and were constantly trying to create "something new".
Maybe because it was the beginning of a new generation of people. I dont know, but it seemed like people from those times were "trying to prove something". Trying to differentiate themselves from others. Trying to create "the next big thing".

While nowadays, we sit on top of "previous achievements" and we deliver "fast food" Movies. Very rarely we try something "new".
Nowadays we rely on "brands", "titles", "remakes", "adaptations" etc
Semms like today were are no longer trying to prove something and we are no longer trying to find "the next big thing".
Its some type of conformism we have today.

Maybe people were more "dreamers" in the 80's? Might be something to do with the generation itself? I dont know.

Because old movies would follow an almost unmodified scenario made by a talented writer. Today, the directors always follow an extremely boring formula they learned at theater school. This formula involves a love story, a happy ending, easy to expect punch, a uptime/downtime cycle (hero gets beaten by bad guy but then finds hidden power and wins)... And it is getting even worst now that they are starting to implement pro LGBT/diversity scenes in their movies.
So whatever awesome story someone can make, Hollywood will never accept a scenario without modifying it to match their boring formula. Take a look at the original deathnote vs the netflix deathnote.
The original is an awesome story where the main character dies at the end and didnt care about the girl. In the american boring netflix version, the guy is in love with the girl and survives.
Watch japanese movies or bollywood movies (if you dont mind the dances every 15mins) if you want better stories.

[The Stormbringer]

Pokemon go was a unique social experience that brought the fantasy of pokemon fans back in the 90s... what if they were real?

If Pokemon were real, nerds would quite literally rule the world, as we'd be obsessively catching and training tiny super-powered weapons of destruction.

I feel like a real Pokemon world would be grittier and messier than the cartoons for sure, much closer to the manga (and perhaps a little darker than that, even). It still might be interesting, though.

[unbound]

A few things to consider here:

- Not all of the movies made today are bad. There are some genuinely good ones that get made.
- Many very good movies don't make a lot of money...either now or back then.
- There are a lot more movies each year now than there used to be. In 1980, there were only a little over 100 feature films released that year to theaters. In 2016, over 700 feature films were released to theaters. So, there are a lot more chances for mediocrity.
- Studios have grown more efficient over the years. While they release more, they also tend to be more formulaic because, let's be honest, they make more money that way.
- TV has moved up substantially in recent years to provide a more compelling environment. This makes for a competitive environment where better story telling can happen. This helps to push movies into more spectacle than thought. It also drives people who want depth further away from the expense and hassle of the movie theater experience.
- The internet helps drive negative opinions. People (young and old) get sucked in by click-bait with "edgy" titles like "What Went Wrong With XXX" and "Why XXX Is Bad".

[Doctor Amadeus]

Because people had less options everything hadn't been over saturated with comic books, writers had more imagination and took risk.

[Logwyn]

Nothing is really new.....its all been done before in some other fashion.

[quras]

Solid practical affects set most old movies to the top shelf. We don't get so much of that anymore and I think it hurts many films but old movies are not better than the majority of new ones.

[Crillam]

It is nostalgia...
There are great movies getting released every year.
I would say that there is a problem though.
The problem is that the big blockbuster movies is taking all the spotlight nowdays so these smaller usually goes unnoticed. Sure sometimes these smaller movies get the spotlight for a while like this years "A quite place" but that is pretty rare. It is also maybe a problem with todays generation. All my friends only do care about these blockbusters and I don't blame them. I myself is a hardcore fan of the MCU. But it is sad that they overshadow other great, ORIGINAL smaller movies like Wind River and The Nice Guys.

[Shadowferal]

Hmf...no one looks back 20 years ago and thinks how good the 90s were, anymore than they look back in the 2000s.

[Enthusiastic Steward]

Depends on what you mean by cultural phenomena or what you would consider an equivalent to Game of Thrones. If you mean widely recognized and culturally impactful then you could use M.A.S.H. as an example for something comparable to Game of Thrones in that regard or even Dallas as both were widely recognizable and culturally impactful in one way or another.

I meant more that something of the style/genre of Game of Thrones didn't really exist on television, epic action-fantasy was reserved for the theater. You didn't really see spectacle setpieces on the small screen, it simply wasn't an option.

Hmf...no one looks back 20 years ago and thinks how good the 90s were

I do. Don't speak for me.

[Cyanu]

80's, 90's, early 2000's

Why are the movies from those times so much better than the majority of movies we have today?

First of all let me say that is entirely possible that is all just nostalgia. But i dont like to think this is true.
I think we have enough critical thinking to differenciate "nostalgia" from "quality".

Also, i'm not saying there is no good films nowadays. There are good movies from this time.
Also not saying there were no bad movies back then. Ofcourse there was.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, with that out of the way. (feel free to say is nostalgia if you want)
If you believe that movies were better back then, please help me discover the reason why.

Some random ideas i have:
For some reason i believe people from those times were simply "more imaginative" and were constantly trying to create "something new".
Maybe because it was the beginning of a new generation of people. I dont know, but it seemed like people from those times were "trying to prove something". Trying to differentiate themselves from others. Trying to create "the next big thing".

While nowadays, we sit on top of "previous achievements" and we deliver "fast food" Movies. Very rarely we try something "new".
Nowadays we rely on "brands", "titles", "remakes", "adaptations" etc
Semms like today were are no longer trying to prove something and we are no longer trying to find "the next big thing".
Its some type of conformism we have today.

Maybe people were more "dreamers" in the 80's? Might be something to do with the generation itself? I dont know.

they're certainly not

thing is that the 'not so good' movies of those times are already forgotten

when someone thinks of '80s movies' he thinks of the best movies of the entire decade (if not more)

when the same guy thinks of 'today's movies' he thinks of a much greater sum of both good and bad movies therefore the average drops down dramatically

not to deny that there's not some stagnation in ideas but that's because many classic plots have already been covered over and over

there's also the fact that some people will always flock to the familiar making remakes a generally safe box office choice compared to going for something new

i'm sure there will come a time when people will remember the 2010-2020 decade with the same nostalgia

[BuckSparkles]

Lot of old movies had practical effects instead of CGI that becomes dated 2 years later.

[Ragnarohk]

Came here to contradict the OP. However... I found the numbers...

[zetitup]

*cough* Sharknado *cough*

[shimerra]

Because movies of today are too busy trying to cash on remakes and reboots. Hence why movies of the 80's and 90's are superior in every way.

Mario and Luigi say hi. Tons of shit in the 80's and 90's. Nostalgia tards just don't care because their shit is automatically better because it was shit when they were young.

Political correctness.

That's what Hollywood is missing today. Blackface and stricter type casting of minorities because white people just don't have enough roles in today's world. Ugh the opression!

[McNeil]

I don't really think that any era had more good or bad movies, its just that the bad movies are more easily forgotten while good movies stand out. The same goes with other media like music and video games. Back then you also had fewer movies to choose from, and it costed a lot to even get to watch them. Nowadays we can basically watch them all for free with the right sites. I do think that creativity has been taken a dip when I look at all the unnecesary remakes and movies trying to try the same plot over and over. There was arguably also a lot more passion made into older movies, while today they only try to make as much money as possible, even if it hurts the movies quality.

[shaunika123]

*cough* Sharknado *cough*

cough plan 9 from outer space cough