I liked T2 better when Arnold Schwarzenegger was involved. The sequel to Trainspotting is wholly unnecessary for everyone involved. Danny Boyle, Ewan McGregor, and co. clearly agreed because they like playing or directing these characters, which does help cover up the pointlessness of this story or what it represents. At least is looks cool and will make you laugh, but you’ll feel dirty doing it.
The original Trainspotting had a seemingly sequelless ending: with Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) screwing over his friends and taking his drug money to Amsterdam. But surprise….Mark returns home 20 years later and sadly, not much has changed. Spud (Ewen Bremner) is struggling mightily staying off heroine and providing for his family. Simon aka “Sick Boy” (Johnny Lee Miller) is scamming hard working people with his girlfriend Veronika (Anjela Nedyalkova). And Begbie (Robert Carlyle) has broken out of prison and gone back to his old life of stealing and raging temper tantrums. Mark’s 3 friends each have beef with the guy when he returns, but in spite of that, Mark slowly gets sucked back into the life he wanted so desperately to leave 20 years earlier.
Directing and acting go a long way to making T2 Trainspotting really fun. Danny Boyle has lost none of his stylistic verve since the original Trainspotting. The Oscar winning director does overdirect a bit, but the style gives Trainspotting a rushed fervor and momentum that keeps you from thinking too hard about the stupid story. Also, there are transitions of sheer brilliance here, like an unexpected bathroom encounter and the end credits; turns out that Oscar was totally deserved. The 4 leads all clearly love these characters too, and they each nail their big scenes and interplay between each other. There’s a scene where McGregor and Miller have to sing a song to nationalists that despise Catholicism that had me near tears in laughter. Carlyle’s magnetism channeling blind rage is instant fun and gives the movie an unhinged unknown that also drives the story, especially his first encounter with McGregor. And Bremner benefits the most from this movie, because he throws himself eagerly into everything to keep his mind off of heroine, and his discovery of hidden gifts give T2 joy that is lacking in the rest of the movie. The fun that everyone is having will make T2 a fun cable movie in a few years.
But sadly, this movie doesn’t embrace the fact that it should have been a series of vignettes, and puts a borderline reprehensible story around the fun. The contrivances that put Begbie back into the world of the other 3 are almost as bad as Home Alone 2. The set up has us believe that Begbie is in prison for life, and dangerous enough to have a guard look after him in the hospital, but once he escapes, ZERO cops show up to his family’s house where he is CLEARLY staying. Just stupid. Worst of all, part of what made the original Trainspotting special was the fact that Mark and sometimes the others were trying desperately to escape their circumstances and drug addiction. T2 then completely backtracks Mark’s journey and pretends like what he wanted all along was to enter an interdependent relationship with his “buddies” and that the events of the first movie really meant nothing. In addition, the movie recreates scenes from the first Trainspotting that despicably mock the beating heart of the first film, succumbing to despair and callousness. Then the movie “teaches” these characters some BS lessons, so we can have a cathartic third act (the Spud stuff is the exception; that is very well written) and feel better, except you’ll just feel awful because the interdependency is treated like a net positive. The more you think of the plot; the more you feel like you got scammed and duped.
When going into T2 Trainspotting, stay for the style and characters, but ignore the story. The story will make you disappointed and angry at how they disparage the fantastic original. I’ll give this for T2 Trainspotting though, at least it’s no Dumb and Dumber To, which is about as awful of a sequel as you can create. Please Danny Boyle, don’t make Slumdog Millionaire 2, please learn your lessons and do something original instead.