[teh b0lly!!1]

Trainspotting 2: Judgement Day

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man oh man, i've been waiting to watch this movie for so long.
few works have shaped my life more than the original film did. i watched it when i was probably 12 years old, which is way too young for a film that fucked up, no question. but it affected me so deeply, juts really carved itself into my heart. i remember walking around with it for DAYS and days, playing and replaying in my head.

i'd watched it countless times, i remember every shot and recite every bit of dialogue, and i was really excited at the prospect of seeing and spending time with those characters again. this film has been like a good friend to me in a weird way, and so are those people. i grew up with them. but on a more grounded note, i knew there was no possible way any film they could come up with, would ever hold up to a film i had mythologized and idealized for some 20 years - even if it would be a colossal masterpiece. it's like developing an affinity for a damaged old sound recording, warbly tape and dropouts and distortion and all. or an old photo. seeing it all digitally cleaned up in 4K would only destroy the memory.

that is only one of the things that really bothered me in this new release: it is just too slick. it just doesn't feel like it is truly happening in the same universe as the original film, which was beautifully analogue - the very subtle grainy quality and the idiosyncratic color palette and the sorrowful, humid scotland air you got from it. this new film is much too generic looking - not costumes wise, not set wise, just the way it was shot. i was never one of those huge camera geeks so i don't know the technical terms to express exactly what it is i don't like - i just know it doesn't feel right to me. and very generous amounts of histrionic post production CGI did not help alleviate that sentiment.

i mean to be honest, when it first showed up, i thought the novelty CGI stuff was a cool little touch that almost rejuvenized that cool 90's feel Boyle achieved with the original - but then it was used again, and again, and again, until it was too much.

but here's the funny thing about all this. all my criticisms can sort of be nullified by the fact that this movie deliberately works on a very meta level. i mean it tells the story of four absolutely damaged individuals who suddenly find themselves still being the same fucked up people in their late 40's. the whole point is that what was endearing, sexy and attractive when they were a bunch of dysfunctional 20 year olds, is mostly offputting in their adulthood. thematically, the whole film goes for disenchantment - so in a way, one could claim that making a movie that is much less compelling, successful, driving, and moving, is simply about reflecting the fading and wearing of the characters it tells the story of.

but of course, this sentiment is relating to the general effect, or the 'outcome' of the movie - meaning that, it would have been ok to walk away from it a bit underwhelmed, or expecting to see something different.

so i guess, after much verbal trodding, i'm finally able to pinpoint to myself that the reason i didn't like it, is because i feel like i wasn't underwhelmed for the right reasons.

i was disappointed because the smug self referencing and glorifying the first movie within the body of the second movie, is fucking weak form, and it's everything i hoped it not to be. there are so many moments that are basically emulated replicas of great moments from the first movie, as if to say "HOW GREAT WAS THIS, EH?". and it does so in such a forced and cumbersome fashion. it might be something as tiny as the way renton convulses when he sees a filthy toilet at the dance club (you can almost hear Danny Boyle yelling in your ear: LOL REMEMBER THE TOILET SCENE? HE MADE THE SAME FACE THEN!), but it also applies to much bigger things that were so lazily hacked into the script.

a good example of that is the millenial version of the Choose Life monologue. i fucking hated it when i first heard it as a voiceover in the trailer, and i hated it now - BUT wit that said, i do sort of understand why they would want to include it in the film. but - and here is my point - the best way they could come up with to shove it in there, is have renton go to dinner with sick boy's gf, and have her say: "OH BTW WHAT'S 'CHOOSE LIFE'? I HEARD SICK BOY SAY IT, LOL WHAT IS IT?"

and then Ewan Mcgregor just launches into it, completely forced and crude as fuck, as the camera awkwardly stays on him. zero subtlety. same goes for a lot of other stuff, namely the film basically turning almost into a slasher film with a monstrously unreasonable Begbie chasing Renton with a bag of weapons in his hand, planning to murder him. it is so flat, so fake, so dumb and inconsistent with what we know about his (amazing) character from the first film. sigh. it was just so disappointing.

btw, another example of how they stitched in a scenario for the sole purpose of ripping off a moment from the first film, was to have Renton get hit by a moving car again, pause for a second and smile heartily. although this time around he waits juts a momenttoo long, as if to relish in applause and celebration of the first film - yet another sign of the smugness i was talking about.

another problem i made a quick note of before, is the actors themselves don't have much credibility going for them as aged version of the characters they played in 1996. Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle and even Ewen Bremner were very hit and miss, but who really dropped the ball big time on this was Ewan Mcgregor. here's what he himself had to say about reprising the role of Renton:

Of all the characters I’ve played who’ve been Scots, Renton is the most Scottish of them all. And I suddenly thought, ‘Fuck! What if I can’t do it? What if I’m not Scottish enough any more?’”

‘We just wanted to nail it. My nerves were about: can I find Renton again? Everybody knows him. People know who he is. I hadn’t tried to be Renton for 20 years. But in the end it was easy.’

"it was easy" my ass. it just means you weren't trying hard enough, cunt. he didn't even sound scottish anymore - it sounded like he was trying his hardest to sound scottish, when he's not anymore.

in fact, the whole film suffers from performances that are simply too self-aware. it really seemed to me like everybody on screen was trying to rev themselves up, but it just looks like they're all trying too hard. there are redeeming moments here and there, mainly very small moments where the actors 'slipped up' and just delivered a small, human gesture, without some ulterior motive or intention behind it. as if they did it without realizing it - and that's where the magic was at for me. that's when i felt at home again with these characters.

i'm sorry that this review is essentially endless bitching, but another thing i didn't like was the direction. it was unrecognizable from the thrilling, punch-packing, visceral, inventive direction that characterized the original. the music selection was fucking awful too, and it was especially noticeable because the original may be the one single movie with the strongest use of music i have ever watched. the sequel had not an ounce of that same flair.

in fact, this whole film and the direction behind it, felt to me like an old dinosaur rock band trying to write songs that emulate their most successful record. this is kinda the equivalent of Quasar or whatever the fuck that song is called. it's the same guy, it's the same guitar sound, the riffs are in the same vein, it's the same shtick, but the heart is just not there. it's sterile.

it could have been so great if they would cast aside all the homages, and winks, and nods, and references, and just try to make something completely independent of the original. just cut themselves loose creatively, and try to come up with something brilliant again, instead of placing all this self importance on themselves. because all those homages and self references, are ultimately there to make the crowds roar. Danny Boyle can tell tales about how he used it thematically to convey the futility of nostalgia, etc, but underneath all the word crust it's still the same thing as all those reboots and self celebrating sequels.

i'll definitely watch it again, i think, just to form a more solid opinion on it. but psychologically, i already find myself separating it from the original, just to keep it intact, and not 'harm' what it means to me. like everyone here calls whatever incarnation it is of sp, SP2 or 3 or 4.

i really miss the 90's sometimes.