T2 Trainspotting picks up 20 years after the first movie. Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor ), who betrayed his friends at the end of the first opus, has chosen to return to Edinburgh after living a life of relative normalcy as an accountant in Amsterdam. The explicit reason for his return is the breakdown of his domestic life, but as the picture develops, we realize he is trying to find a way to redeem himself — his life is a bit of a failure, but back home, all his friends have that in common. Spud (Ewen Bremner), despite a botched a suicide attempt early on, is still as lovable as ever. Simon “Sickboy” Williamson (Jonny Lee Miller) is running a blackmail scam with his Bulgarian girlfriend Veronika, and is still filled with rage over Renton’s betrayal all those years ago. And Franco Begbie (the amazing Robert Carlyle, still as unhinged as in the first movie), is boiling throughout his fittingly bloody time on the lam.

Gone is the highly frenetic pace that carried viewers from 20 years ago. Instead, the drama is fueled by the ongoing dispute between the characters, who throughout the picture, struggle with balancing their anger at the betrayal, with the joy of their reunion. The gritty drug-related scenes that were ever-present in the first movie are only hinted at in this picture, one of the ways director Danny Boyle successfully illustrates how deeply linked the characters are with one an0ther.

Nostalgia permeates the movie in various ways. Boyle peppers the film with scenes that recreate the iconic moments of the first picture, and he also makes careful use of the stop-and-go camera tricks that were almost too present in the first installment. The impeccable soundtrack — a high point of the first move — is used as a tool to tease us, to devastatingly effective results.

A protagonist that is not to be overlooked is the city of Edinburgh itself, never as beautifully showcased in the first movie. Here, it ends up being one of the more memorable elements, contrasting lush green countryside with the charming city streets and active urban landscapes, resulting in an effective backdrop to all this madness. I wasn’t thinking about it going into the movie, but now Edinburgh is on my list of places to visit.

The exhilarating reunion of the friends who swam through a murky river of drugs, betrayal and death, and somehow made it out alive.

Boyle succeeds in replacing the ingredients that made the first movie so iconic by injecting a maturity that is expected, and the exhilarating reunion of the friends who swam through a murky river of drugs, betrayal and death, and somehow made it out alive. As a result, we are never bored. A high point is when Renton and Simon decide to plunder a secluded Protestant club, but are forced to get onstage and improvise an anti-Catholic chant, much to the delight of the hecklers, and the audience. The result is hilarious.

But perhaps the most important theme of T2 is the failure of masculinity. Every character has tried to succeed in their respective lives, but the disappointment of the female characters, as well as the children in the movie, perfectly illustrate the extent of our protagonist’s failure. As fathers and as friends, they’ve not done very well, and the final denouement is testament to the price to pay for not living up to your promises.

For anyone expecting the sequel to match or surpass the original: it doesn’t. It shouldn’t - and that’s what makes it great.

For anyone expecting the sequel to match or surpass the original: it doesn’t. It shouldn’t – and that’s what makes it great. As noted, the overall mood is more mature, but the characters never want to grow up- we are reminded that everything has its consequences, and that old habits die hard. Betrayal has its price, but redemption is worth attempting. T2 is refreshing in that it sees Danny Boyle, nowadays drowning in Academy Awards thanks to Slumdog Millionaire, having the time of his life.

The sequel successful in that it never tries too hard to recreate what it knows that it can’t – we are just delighted to see these character again, some of us meeting them for the first time. Seeing how delightfully damaged they all are is somehow deeply reassuring, and we can all identify with the inevitable desire of rekindling our relationship with one’s past.