I'm watching Dante's Peak (1997), a volcano flick starring Pierce Brosnan.
The colours are just so wonderful -- it's like being outside in real nature.
Whereas with modern movies things seem really washed out. The filming is crisp, and the composition is usually good, but it feels like you're living in a claustrophobic world. Modern movies feel a lot like living in 1984.
Is this the difference between film/digital? Or are people choosing different colour palates?
The theme of the modern era is "Realism." Not actual reality, but what people think realism looks like. Which means most forms of art/media attempt to have muted and boring colors as that is what is associated with the idea of "realism" in most people's minds.
This also means less fantastical locations, backgrounds, and architecture. Instead everything needs to look assemblable and human, meaning it all has this boring scrap metal feel with space being given the least concern in exchange for a "lived in" decor.
The mid-late 90s was an era of big budget CGI, which meant the opposite. Wild and vibrant madness because they were finally able to have it without needing 10000 hours with mini-sets and practical effects to maybe look passable.
Don't confuse what the content creators consider reality with what most people consider reality.
The huge amount of people that praise the graphics in CoD and other AAA titles says that those things are often one and the same.
Reality is Unrealistic X Prefers the Illusion.
The farther away from nature/reality humans get, the more they think their impressions of How Things Should Be seem more real than reality itself.