I’m going to count movies from the late 60s, 70s and 80s as the movies from the past and the movies from the 90s, 2000s and 2010s as modern movies.
It’s hard to compare those movies, let alone say which ones are better because they are so different and better at different things. Modern movies have much better special effects while the movies from the past have a lot more classics.
I think whether you like the past movies and the modern movies better also depends at which time you were born. A lot of times movies use a lot of references popular to the time of the movie so if you are younger than the movie you just might not get it and not enjoy the movie as much as someone who does get it.
Let’s compare the movie from the past and the modern movie which are the same gender.
2001:A Space Odyssey and Interstellar. Both are sci-fi/adventure movies about going to space and meeting aliens. Interstellar obviously has better special effects but I think that 2001 has a better, more complex story that has a bigger impact on your way of thinking.
Personally I think that a lot of modern movies are made with the intention of relaxing the viewer and that more movies from the past focus on making the viewer think, be it about life or about aliens. I’m not saying that all the modern movies are dumb and don’t make you think or that there are no relaxing movies from the past, but there are more modern movies that are made to be relaxing and more movies from the past that make you think. So if I want to relax while watching a movie I will first search for modern movies with better CGI and if I want to watch a complex movie I will search the older movies.
Excellent observation.