My Trainspotting 2 Review

Okay, if you're a movie buff and you're a fan of the original Trainspotting, you should know that it revolutionized cinema and made an impact. I watched Trainspotting when I was about fourteen, a better time in my youth, my mum bought it from a charity store and much like how she let me watch 8 Mile (when I was about ten), she allowed me to watch Trainspotting. I've always been a loner, drifter and being a loner movies are always here for me and I love films, so I was not disappointed with Trainspotting. It's only now aged eighteen and miserable in my early adulthood that I truly appreciate Trainspotting, it is not about heroin addicts; it's about friendships, decaying innocence, growing older and growing wiser. Sure we cannot forget Trainspotting's killer soundtrack, cinematography and memorable quotes especially the "choose life" quote which it revolves around; Choose life, choose a job, choose a career...

Growing up you come to understand Trainspotting more and fall in love with it further because its something we've all experienced. Friendships which are just dying like an animal clipped by a car and needs to be put out of its misery, innocence which decays because of stupid mistakes and the bad stuff we commit. I even bought the novel for Trainspotting after watching the film, the novel written by Irvine Welsh is raw and hard to read due to it being written in Scottish slang so it doesn't matter if you think you're an English professor, you'll be rereading words and sentences in the Trainspotting novel more than twice. So I've had a quick chat with you about Trainspotting, its importance, and how its an iconic classic—now let's get talking about Trainspotting 2 or T2.

I know that T2 was released in the cinema a few months back but I didn't watch it because I was seventeen at the time and I couldn't exactly take the risk and claim I was eighteen when in fact I look like I'm fourteen due to my milky bar kid appearance. I bought T2 jut yesterday and have watched it twice since and am I disappointed? Hell no. We knew has an audience that T2 would not be like its original; why should it? We repeat past mistakes but why repeat film? T2 I enjoyed but I didn't love it like it's 1996 original, but just like life we don't love our current life situations and we look back on our favourable memories of youth in glee.

First of all, T2 has some beautiful cinematography and lovely use of colors, the strange camera shots are what we expect from good old Danny Boyle. The soundtrack was great; I'm mesmerized by the song "Silk" by Wolf Alice. There are some other good tunes which fit in perfectly with the film, however, T2's soundtrack will never be superior to its 1996 original, but of course, we already knew this. T2 follows Mark Renton (aka Rents, Rent Boy) who's been living a regular life in Amsterdam where we saw him hop off to in the ending of the original. Renton is married, he's got an accounting job, he goes to the gym and, well, he lives a life we tried or try to avoid, a boring life of routine where we work and work trying to make everyone happy and convince ourselves we're happy until eventually we die. Renton returns to his hometown Edinburgh where he confronts old faces, the past, and his consequences of what happened twenty years prior. My favourite character in T2 was Spud, the loveable little brother of his friends. Spud's still sticking needles in his skin and heroin's running through his veins like water through a pipe, however, he's tried to be better. Spud is depressed, he's been a junkie for over twenty years, he's attempted to bury his addiction but failed, he's tried making an honest living but failed, he's tried to be a father but failed. Failure is worse then death that's why he tries to commit suicide but is rescued by Renton who he blames for messing up his life and ruining his death. Let's be honest Renton is to be blamed; he is an anti-hero and a villain in his own right, wrecking his friend Tommy's relationship, getting Tommy hooked on heroin and getting Tommy killed. There are more sins Renton has done but we won't get into that. Simon Williamson (Sickboy) is still a con-artist at his charismatic best blackmailing men who love to have fun with a strap-on with his girlfriend Veronika. Francis Begbie, the violent sociopath, has been doing twenty years in prison for what we guess is armed robbery (remember back in the original?) and a long list of violent offences.

Seeing Renton and Sickboy reunite with each other was pleasant and Sickboy giving Renton a justified beating was fantastic to see. We explore further into Renton and Sickboy's past, their childhood growing up together and learning more about them. I think in T2 Renton and Sickboy have more of a friendship even a bromance and we're able to see why. Spud was interesting and tragic but what I thought was a brilliant idea was Spud writing down and forming all his memories into stories which would soon be published into the famous Trainspotting novel. We meet Begbie's love and his son Frank JR but luckily his son isn't a violent criminal like him, he's taking the more educational route in life. Best not forget that we learn Begbie and Renton first met in primary school and Renton and Sickboy had their first shot of heroin together. All these details in T2 make us learn more about these characters and it's glorious. T2 is (like in the original) about friendships, growing old too fast, confronting the past and it's consequences and making peace. T2 is an incredibly suited sequel and ending to the 1996 original, Trainspotting is overall about life and that's why we adore it and make it an important iconic classic.

I give Trainspotting 2 an A.