Whats with the Image Quality in movies?

[Scowling Dragon]

Im probably missing something, but why does everything look so clean and crisp (Even in dirty scenes) in movies these days?

Its this image quality that makes me think of glass, whilst watching movies from the 80s and 90s makes me think more of plastic.

This thought just popped into my head when watching the Old robocop VS the newer one.

[Jimorian]

A lot of it is digital vs. film. Especially with effects. With film effects, you may be making 5 or 6 generations of copies of the original in order to produce the final frame (and exposing through several layers of film to get it as well). And for some reason, when these are transferred to video, any artifacts like cut out windows to the matt layer really stand out. And for Robocop in particular, I remember how fuzzy the model shots were when compared to the foreground live action.