So, Danny Boyle, was it worth it?
It’s over two weeks since T2 Trainspotting came out in the UK, the sequel to director Boyle’s 1996 cult movie that chronicled drug addicts in Scotland and so much more.
The initial adrenaline rush of excitement and anticipation is gradually giving way to a collective “meh.”
The odds of T2 achieving classic status, akin to its predecessor, are receding as fast as Spud’s hairline, reflected in the film’s pretty rapid burn out at the box office.
On a wave of audience curiosity, goodwill and an expensive promo campaign from Sony Pictures, the downbeat film enjoyed a strong £5.15 million opening weekend, a rare feat for the UK-equivalent of an R-rated film (although it was still not enough to claim the number one spot which went to Sing!).
The second weekend, however, saw the film’s takings decline by 43% to reach a total of £10.6 million which isn’t disastrous but is worrying evidence of the sequel running out of puff. In its third weekend the movie dropped 52%, something of a significant comedown.
If it was gaining traction with audiences, as was the case with the first Trainspotting movie, Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire or any number of sleeper hits, the percentage might actually go up.
Slumdog rose by a huge 44% in its second weekend and a further 5% in its third weekend on its way to an impressive £31.66 million. The King’s Speech saw a 32% bump in its second frame.
It’s hard to see T2 making more than £15 million, which would be less than the £16 million pulled in by Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie last year. Not very cool, sweetie.
The underwhelming reception begs the question, did audiences actually want a Trainspotting sequel? And if the answer is yes, did they want THIS particular sequel—a picture as depressing and melancholy as the original was a huge cinematic high?
It plays like a kind of maudlin companion piece to the first film, shackled to the past, like its characters, none of whom have moved on in any meaningful or interesting way.
Ewan McGregor’s Mark “Rent Boy” Renton, who ran off with his mates’ loot at the end of Trainspotting, returns from Amsterdam, his life a mess, keen to reconnect with his old pals, especially Sick Boy (Johnny Lee Miller) who runs a failing pub.
Spud (Ewan Bremner) is still an addict while psycho Begbie (Robert Carlyle) breaks out of jail after 20 years and wants to murder Renton.
The screenplay is again by John Hodge, only loosely based on Irvine Welsh’s follow up novel, Porno, and it certainly doesn’t tap into the zeitgeist in the defining way that the “Choose Life” 90s original did.
True, what film could? But in some instances T2 feels positively dated. There’s a a limp running gag about Begbie using Viagra and a sub-plot involving the EU which is very pre-Brexit.
By all accounts, Hodge had trouble cracking the script. Boyle has revealed how two previous versions were discarded and the final screenplay only came into being after a week’s brainstorming between himself, Hodge and Welsh in Edinburgh.
It’s tempting to say they should have ditched this one too. The film is not terrible, it just struggles to justify its existence, serving mainly as a teasing reminder of how good the original is (it’s chock-full of clips which doesn’t really help).
British critics erred on the side of generosity but trade coverage in the Hollywood Reporter and Variety has been pretty withering. The former described it as “disappointingly redundant.” It’s hardly a good omen for when the movie opens in the US next month.
Even Boyle himself, introducing the film at a packed London screening, appeared a bit jittery. His biggest fear, he said, was to make something “s**te”, a word he used again on Graham Norton’s BBC TV chat show.
T2 Trainspotting ain’t s**te. But it ain’t no classic.
