#3 - April 20, 2009, 9:36 a.m.
I am sorry to hear you are experiencing this, Kith.
Asking others if they are having the same experience is actually a good diagnostic tool. If they are - chances are it's on our end. If they are not - chances are very good it's on your side.
LOTS changed in 3.1. If you are running any addons at all, I'd recommend as a precaution you move every one off, location updated versions of the ones you must have, and reset your UI. Reinstalling the updated versions one by one. Just see if this still seems to happen.
To do a full reset UI, you will want to save your addons in another spot if you wish to preserve them.
Then rename/delete or move your WTF, Cache and Interface folders while WoW is shutdown. Reboot your system.
Note, if you are running Vista make sure your permissions are set so it does not undo your changes. Vista has a nasty habit of wanting to backup files in a couple places – if those exist and are not removed as well, it can pull from those and effectively no changes get made.
If you’ve properly done a full reset UI you should see the cinematics when you launch World of Warcraft again.
More detailed instructions for different operating systems, including Macs are here.
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=18761&searchQuery=reset%20UI&pageNumber=1 Resetting your UI actually can cure many symptoms.