A CBC review says The Devil Wears Prada 2 has sharper looks and familiar faces, but struggles to match the focus and cultural bite of the 2006 film.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 returns to Runway with Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci back in the fashion world, but a new CBC review argues the sequel’s glamour is stronger than its story.
The film, which CBC says hits theatres Friday, revisits the orbit of Miranda Priestly and Andy Sachs nearly two decades after the Oscar-nominated original. CBC critic Jackson Weaver describes the sequel as a polished, nostalgia-heavy return that is pleasant on the surface but far less focused or memorable than the 2006 film.
The review says the new story places Runway magazine in a moment of crisis, with declining faith in legacy media, advertisers exerting pressure and a tech billionaire character, Benji Barnes, played by Justin Theroux, imagining a future in which artificial intelligence could replace articles, models and human creative labour. That setup gives the movie a timely backdrop, but Weaver argues the film does not develop the theme deeply enough.
Hathaway’s Andy is now an established journalist, though the review says the sequel pushes her back into familiar patterns around Miranda and Runway. Streep’s Miranda, once defined by icy certainty, is presented as diminished and unusually tentative, while Tucci’s Nigel and Blunt’s Emily return to a fashion industry that has shifted toward online content, branding and advertiser demands.
Blunt’s Emily is singled out as the standout among the returning characters. Now a Dior executive, she becomes a sharper embodiment of the commercial pressures facing the magazine, including a demand that Runway publish a multi-page advertorial. The review says that tension between editorial integrity and business survival is one of the sequel’s more promising ideas, even if the film does not fully explore it.
The sequel also leans heavily on callbacks for fans, from references to Miranda’s disdain for spring florals to nods at the original’s famous cerulean sweater moment. Weaver writes that those pleasures help preserve the comfort-watch appeal, along with stronger fashion looks and star-studded cameos.
But the review’s central criticism is that The Devil Wears Prada 2 often relies on the audience’s affection for the first film rather than earning its own place beside it. Weaver argues the sequel reverses or softens earlier character development and offers a thinner take on fashion, journalism and creative work than the original managed.
For viewers, the immediate question is whether the reunion itself is enough. The CBC review suggests the film delivers familiar faces, glossy styling and easy nostalgia, but stops short of becoming the pointed, durable follow-up its predecessor invited.
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