“The Devil Wears Prada 2” is a worthy sequel to the 2006 classic.
The film avoids feeling like a soulless cash grab and instead delivers a genuine continuation of the original story, introducing bold ideas that explore the modern worlds of fashion, journalism, and the decline of print magazines. While it is not perfect, the film offers a compelling mix of strong performances, stylish visuals, and thoughtful themes.
“The Devil Wears Prada 2” takes place 20 years after the original film, with Andy still working as a journalist in New York City. After she and her entire team are suddenly fired, she’s brought back to Runway to help navigate a major controversy involving child labor.
Meanwhile, Miranda Priestly finds herself at odds with her former assistant, Emily Charlton. They are now a rival executives as the two compete for advertising revenue in the face of a struggling print media industry.
The Good: Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep seamlessly return to their roles as Andy Sachs and Miranda Priestly, delivering performances that feel both natural and evolved. Their ability to step back into these iconic characters nearly two decades later is impressive. It would not be surprising if either actress received a nomination for Best Actress at the 2027 Academy Awards.
Supporting performances from Emily Blunt as Emily Charlton and Stanley Tucci as Nigel are also strong and add depth to the film.
Ironically enough, the costume/set design in a movie about fashion and art is pretty darn good, with all the outfits worn during the fashion shows being very cute and very stunning, especially Meryl Streep’s giant red dress.
The set design is very unique, with it blending modern simplistic design and a more abstract older design into one super design.
The film’s humor is another positive. Most of the funny moments are well timed, though a few jokes fall flat or feel a bit corny. One particularly effective running joke involves the evolution of workplace culture, such as Miranda having to hang up her own coat instead of tossing it onto an assistant’s desk and that she’s not aloud to call someone fat or say she’s going to off herself.
The Middle: The story felt safe and a bit boring at some points, but that’s not saying the story was bad. It definitely had some very solid elements and messages to say about the dying art of magazines and journalism, but it’s too much of a whisper for it to be anything more than a story point rather than an actual message. The movie wants to say the quiet part out loud but loses its voice mid scream.
Another little problem I had was the shaky camera movements, which there were very little of, but enough for me to notice and get a little bit of motion sickness from. But for the most part, the cinematography was pretty solid with there being some beautiful shots, especially when they’re in Italy.
The character arcs are decent, with the only one I liked being Miranda finally giving Nigel his opportunity to shine and giving the great big speech at the end of the movie. That scene did give me a warm feeling in my stomach, but besides that, every other character arc felt a bit rushed or at some times just unfinished, which is one of my least favorite things a movie can do.
The Devilishly Bad: I really only had one thing that I couldn’t stand in this movie, and that’s the wasted opportunity of its “villain” Benji Barnes, a tech CEO who’s buying Runway Magazine for his fiance Emily Charlton so she can run Runway. It isn’t a bad villain plan or plot line, but they don’t do anything with Benji.
They make Benji a dumb tech guy who only wants to make his girlfriend happy, instead of a smart out-of-touch tech guy. This would have made a great villain and a more realistic villain that could provide some great meta-commentary, but they force a conflict between Emily and Andy, which its fine. But my version would have been better.
“The Devil Wears Prada 2” is one of the better legacy sequels, which isn’t a high bar but it’s a bar nonetheless. I really hope they don’t make a third and in the process ruin the ending of “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” But who knows? Money is a heck of a thing.
I give “The Devil Wears Prada 2” ⭐⭐⭐⭐ or a 8.2/10. It is not a must-see, but it is definitely worth watching in theaters.