Meryl Streep has criticised the “Marvel-ising” of cinema, claiming that films are increasingly presenting black-and-white moral viewpoints that don’t reflect reality.
Speaking to Fleur East on The Hits Radio Breakfast Show, Streep was asked about her new film The Devil Wears Prada 2, in which she reprises the role of tyrannical fashion magnate Miranda Priestly. East suggested that the film explored a softer side of Streep’s famously domineering character.
“I don’t know. I feel like you get a realistic view,” Streep responded. “I think when we tend to Marvel-ise the movies now – we got the villains and we got the good guys – and it’s so boring.”
She continued: “And what’s really interesting about life is that some of the heroes are flawed and some of the villains are human and interesting and have their own strengths. So that’s what I like about [The Devil Wears Prada 2]. It’s messier.”
The Marvel franchise – a long-running series of superhero blockbusters that constitutes the most commercially successful film franchise of the 21st century – often employs clear-cut hero-villain dynamics, a trend Streep finds reductive.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a sequel to the popular 2006 film, starring Anne Hathaway, Streep, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci. All reprise their roles in the new sequel, which has received warm reviews from critics.
In a four-star review for The Independent, critic Clarisse Loughrey wrote: “Not even the die-hard loyalists of 2006’s fashion satire The Devil Wears Prada expected much from its return to the big screen: a 'cerulean sweater' callback, certainly, alongside some washed out lighting and plenty of egregious product placement. All are, unfortunately, present in The Devil Wears Prada 2 – get ready to play a hypercapitalist Where’s Wally? with all the snuck-in Diet Coke cans. Yet the sequel has also seemingly come out of nowhere to deliver what might be the most trenchant, committed portrait made about the state of contemporary journalism.”
The film has also enjoyed a fruitful opening at the box office, making more on its first day (in the US) than the original Devil Wears Prada did over an entire three-day opening weekend. At the time of writing, the film has already made $115m, already surpassing its reported $100m production budget.
