CHOOSE life. Choose catching up with old friends you haven’t seen in donkey’s years. Choose a sequel that actually lives up to its promise.

The awkward title is about the only thing that doesn’t feel right about Danny Boyle’s older and world-weary but still attention-grabbing and absorbing sequel.

We’re 20 years on from when Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) walked away from his drug-fuelled, hedonistic life, taking with him the £16,000 the ragtag group of friends earned from a dodgy drug deal. That is, minus the quarter he left for his most liked friend Spud (Ewan Bremner).

It’s a point that rears its head as both a point of annoyance – “What did you think I was gonna’ do with £4,000? I was a junky! I still am!” Spud retorts as Mark makes a surprise appearance on his doorstep – and as a crucial turning point as the undoubtedly coincidence-laden plot enters into the home stretch.

It’s most pleasing to see that this is a sequel made with reverence and affection for its characters as well as respect for the intelligence of an audience with fond memories of that seminal beacon of sparky 90s British indie cinema.

The characters are still just as darkly funny and compelling in all their multi-faceted flaws, if not exactly wiser this time then certainly more self-reflective, scarred and obsessed with their past.

There’s Begbie (Robert Carlyle), fresh from escaping prison, thinking of little else but getting his hands on Mark for the money he took once he finds out he’s still out there within reach. There’s Spud, regretting his life as a heroin addict and trying to pull himself out of a hole he’s been in for most of his life.

Simon, aka Sickboy (Jonny Lee Miller), is running an old family pub that makes so little money that it’s barely worth opening, and using a blackmailing scheme against wealthy locals to keep himself afloat. And then we have Mark, simply hoping to attain a feeling of what he once had, even if that means getting off at a destination marked danger. Mind the gap.

The past is all they talk about remarks Simon’s Bulgarian girlfriend Veronika (Anjela Nedyalkova), for whom he’s planning to open a luxury spa (read: brothel), as he and Mark spend an afternoon kidding around and reliving the good old days in his living room. What else do you chat about when you reconnect with people from back then?

“We’re here as an act of memorial,” Mark explains as they lay flowers on the anniversary of an old mate’s death. “Nostalgia, that’s why you’re here!” scoffs Simon in reply. “You’re a tourist in your own youth.” It’s a telling line for how we’re now viewing Mark’s journey, and for the self-aware glint in its eye as a through-and-through sequel intrinsically tied to something so fondly remembered.

Boyle once again shows his exquisite talent for vibrant, creative direction. We first saw it in his 1994 debut Shallow Grave before flourishing fully into sight with the first Trainspotting, and it has carried him through the years as one of the premiere directors with an ability to turn his hand to any genre.

20 years is a long time between films, and in blander hands this would be a cynical, run-of-the-mill cash-grab of a sequel. But Boyle – equipped with a stellar returning cast who slip back into these roles as if they never were away – brings great vitality and depth of feeling to this most anticipated of follow-ups.

Stark imagery is aplenty. Spud imagining falling backwards off a roof; the neon-lit nightclub bathroom in which Mark retreats for some solace just before a frantic foot chase ensues through eerily empty Edinburgh streets; or the quieter image of his shadow looming in the place where his late mother once used to sit when he returns to check up on his now lonesome father (James Cosmo) at his family home.

The latter exemplifies the surprising and strangely touching vein of sadness that runs throughout T2, a kind of melancholy that sits rather beautifully in contrast to the requisite raucousness and blasting, eclectic soundtrack (including Young Fathers, Run-DMC and, of course, Iggy Pop) there to satiate the appetite of an audience expecting nothing less.

Could we be seeing more of Renton and co? It’s not out of the question. Although if this is the end of the line that’s okay, too. Either way it’s a massive relief to say that this confident and entertaining sequel has plenty of lust for life.