Furthermore, why do old movies look different?
Sometimes it's because the transfers of movie you're watching were taken from film prints that are in poor condition. It'll look fuzzy, grainy, poorly lit, with faded color if it's anything other than black and white. This is not what it always looked like.
Subsequently, question is, why were movies better in the 90s? Originally Answered: Why do most 90s movies have better quality than most of current ones? The story ideas were better, more attention was given on acting than on special effects. Directors did not really care what the audience wanted, but what they wanted to create.
Likewise, how did they edit movies in the 90s?
Yes, movies were cut on film with machines called Moviolas or KEM/Steenbecks. However digital editing (mainly on Avid) was going strong by the 90s. Special effects were mainly done for real as computer generated ones (CGI) were still developing and very expensive.
Why are old movies so much better?
Quantity vs quality. Another reason older movies receive higher ratings is because more and more movies are being made each year on average, and most of them are bad. Before digital videography became the mainstream in the 2000s, far fewer people had the resources to actually make a film.
