T2: TRAINSPOTTING (2017) **

After seeing Ewan McGregor in the decades-too-late sequel to a classic, Doctor Sleep, I figured I’d watch him in another decades-too-late sequel to a classic, T2:  Trainspotting.  Far be it from me to give anyone career advice, but Ewan McGregor needs to stop starring in decades-too-late sequels to classics.  He needs to stick to what he does best:  Starring in decades-too-late prequels to a classic.

McGregor yet again plays Renton, the role that made him a star.   He returns home after twenty years to make amends with the friends he left behind.  Broke, and with nothing better to do, he winds up helping his pals in their latest get-rich-quick scheme of building a brothel.

Despite the presence of all the original cast members and the return of director Danny Boyle and writer John Hodge, T2 is kind of a hollow, soulless affair.  It almost plays more like a filmed class reunion than an actual movie.  There doesn’t seem to be much drive to the plot or motivation for the characters to even warrant a sequel.  It also takes an inordinate amount of time to get going, and when it runs out of gas (which is often) Boyle falls back on scenes that echo (or just blatantly rip-off) the original.  All he succeeds in doing is reminding you how fresh and vibrant the first film was.  This one just feels sad and tired.  

I don’t know.  Maybe that’s the entire point.  Maybe Boyle and company are saying it’s better to burn out than fade away.  Jonny Lee Miller’s Sick Boy says a line about the dangers of nostalgia and “being a tourist in your own youth”.  Maybe that’s the message.  Maybe we should look forward and not backward.  Too bad the movie didn’t heed its own advice.