“Choose watching history repeat itself,” says Ewan McGregor in the trailer voice-over for Trainspotting 2 – pleads, really, since that’s what he and director Danny Boyle are asking us to do with their forthcoming follow-up to their 1996 smash. It marks Boyle’s first sequel, and if you’re going to finally give in and make one, it might as well be for your most iconic picture (if not, at least to some, your best).
And while the film sounded unfortunate, a desperate attempt to tap back into a departed zeitgeist, this must be said: it looks pretty good. The much-quoted “choose life” motif adapts rather easily to the 21st century, while the hyper-kinetic editing and camerawork that made the first film so memorable are clearly present and accounted for – as are, it seems, the original personnel. And while it seems like more of those heroin addicts would’ve bit the dust in the ensuing two decades, it’s nonetheless good to see them all back, and working a mid-normalized-life crisis vibe. Take a look:
The most interesting angle of Trainspotting 2 (or T2, as it’s cheekily dubbed) for fans of the director is not his reunion with author Irvine Welsh, but with star Ewan McGregor; the actor fronted Boyle’s first three pictures (Shallow Grave, T1, and A Life Less Ordinary) before falling out over the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role of The Beach. T2 is their first collaboration in nearly two decades.
T2: Transpotting 2 hits theaters in the UK on January 27th, and arrives in the U.S. on February 3rd.