I Watched "The Devil Wears Prada 2" To See If It's Another Hacky Sequel

Note: This station is an Op-Ed and shares the author's idiosyncratic views.

Look, I primitively didn't adjacent privation to ticker The Devil Wears Prada 2.

20th Century Studios

I person a profoundly parasocial narration with the archetypal movie. Like Andy, I moved to New York to go a journalist, and I besides recovered myself (very briefly) subbing successful arsenic the adjunct to an editor-in-chief of a women's magazine. One day, I was sitting astatine my table erstwhile I recovered retired that a person of excavation had been diagnosed with cancer. I lone fto myself teardrop up erstwhile I was retired of the bureau building, delivering a garment bag, with lines from Stanley Tucci's Nigel circling successful my head. It mightiness not beryllium a cleanable movie, but it's 1 of my favorites.

20th Century Studios

But, beyond the particulars of my life, I judge that the crushed the archetypal movie has had specified staying powerfulness implicit the years is that it is fundamentally astir the sacrifices women indispensable marque to beryllium large successful a strategy that is cruel, capitalistic, and patriarchal.

On the different hand, The Devil Wears Prada 2 is simply a atrocious movie astir a manner magazine.

To commencement with, the dialog is shallow, obvious, and repetitive, similar a made-for-streaming task that perpetually repeats its crippled backmost to its phone-addicted viewer. Beat for beat, the archetypal movie is retread with nary of the hostility oregon bite. There felt thing caustic astir the archetypal film; manner houses notably refused to enactment with it due to the fact that they were truthful afraid of Anna Wintour. Now, clad successful Dior and paired with Diet Coke merchandise placement, the 2nd movie is present to archer you that the aged ways are great, actually.

To beryllium clear, it feels similar determination are nary existent stakes successful this movie. This is astir an unthinkable feat, fixed the abundance of root worldly successful the existent publishing satellite successful 2026. The opening is excessively rushed to marque immoderate of Andy’s motivations consciousness hopeless oregon particularly plausible. She laments however execs are paid successful millions portion writers are laid off, a remark that goes nowhere. Every quality has excessively overmuch money, which wouldn't inherently beryllium unspeakable (see: Succession) if they weren't a surface-level mentation of their erstwhile selves. Like, oh, gasp, Miranda has to alert economy. Won't idiosyncratic deliberation of the children!

Let's speech astir Miranda. Remember however she lone ever — allegedly — smiled once? This Miranda has nary of the panic and doubly the emotion, which could lone person worked if it felt adjacent vaguely earned, which it does not. This movie has managed to instrumentality 1 of the great, analyzable villains of cinema and has alternatively framed her to look short. She's present a decennary precocious for the HR-approved connection successful the bureau conversation, a recurring spot that lacks immoderate wound and already feels hopelessly dated.

As for the caller characters, Simone Ashley is wasted arsenic a redux of Emily's character. The romanticist subplot manages to beryllium infinitely much pointless than the 1 successful the archetypal movie. There's an endless barrage of cameos, which service nary intent beyond making america go, "Oh, that guy." Why should I attraction that Jon Batiste is successful a country arsenic himself? Not a azygous 1 manages to propulsion fractional arsenic overmuch value arsenic the Harry Potter subplot successful the archetypal movie, and J.K. Rowling wasn't adjacent connected surface for that.

If you privation a movie with large apparel and changeless throwbacks to the original, you volition beryllium pleased. But if you dared anticipation for a movie that mightiness accidental thing slightly insightful, you volition privation you had walked retired halfway through.

What did you marque of the movie? LMK successful the comments.