The power of nostalgia in movies has hit fever pitch

There has been a resurgence in in-your-face movie nostalgia, with particular emphasis on those who love movies from the noughties.

Across social media, there seems to be an increasing number of posts and discussions of early 2000s hits and animations of the period. Mean Girls, She's the Man, Scooby-Doo and How the Grinch Stole Christmas are just some of the movies that have apparently hit popularity again among film fans.

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Nostalgia is, potentially, the most powerful tool a studio can utilise. Every film franchise relies on nostalgia, resting on its laurels in order to expand into subsequent sequels and prequels. Star Wars and Harry Potter are perhaps the most blatant when it comes to this, expanding on their established sagas which will never amount to the critical success of their predecessors. Yet, the paying audience appears to understand this notion. No one expected the Fantastic Beasts franchise to surpass any of the Harry Potter films, while the Star Wars prequel and sequel trilogies both concluded with a damp squib.

The Star Wars prequel trilogy is an interesting example because there are now fans - fans who were perhaps children when the movies came out - who now swear by the quality of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith despite the critical mauling they received at the time of release.

Time and time again people will pay to see something that gives them a fraction of the feeling they once felt when they saw something like Star Wars for the first time. However, films akin to Mean Girls or "'the chick flick' (a rather unsavoury term for these films) are remembered rather differently. They are remembered with a hint of sadness, as these are films that have primarily been phased out of modern cinema, or at least, relegated to Netflix, seemingly unworthy of the Big-Screen treatment. Although it comes down to box-office and over time people simply lost interest in this sub-genre, the passion seen for these 2000s films demonstrates a longing for their return. While some of the films in this genre are quite terrible, they really don't make films like these anymore and their loss is clearly felt.

No one can really escape these rose-tinted goggles; we will all have a beloved childhood film we know is not Citizen Kane. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed is far better than the first; Shawn Levy's, Night at the Museum is a fun and completely overlooked family romp, while the first Johnny English film also holds a special place in the heart. However, while I stand by these opinions, I cannot expect those who did not grow up them to understand or even particularly like these films. The films we grew up with are indeed deeply personal to every individual. 

There is also a rather cynical idea as to why these films are so cherished. Perhaps they echo a want to return to a better time in our lives or at least a time when we didn't hold any responsibility. Our love for these properties may stem from what Scot Alexander Howard calls, 'the poverty of the present.’ Childhood goes by so quickly that we will always want to relive our most carefree moments. While it could also be said that these are the films that defined our childhoods too and, to an extent, shaped us and our artistic sensibilities.

For those of a certain age, the love for current comic book movies stems from Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2.

Nostalgia isn't just a state of memory, it is a concurrent emotion. a gateway to our past that cannot leave us. No matter how hard we try and refuse it when studios use it against us, we hardly resist. We want to be reminded of a time or a moment we loved.