From it’s cool, stylised opening onwards, in which the present day world of T2 Trainspotting is cut with iconic shots from the original, Danny Boyle’s sequel to what is often hailed as one of the most important British films ever made rides high on an expected sense of nostalgia. In case the images of a young Renton (Ewan McGregor) don’t do it for you, a tender, instrumental reworking of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” should force the wistful reminiscence into overdrive – that is, until a particularly heavy scene early on reminds us suddenly, and sharply, just how brilliantly miserable 1996’s Trainspotting really was. It’s that reliance on our adoration of the original that ultimately stops T2 from genuinely affecting the way Trainspotting did. The story here takes place twenty years after the events of the first film and follows a much more straightforward narrative, rather than...