The Devil Wears Prada 2 has garnered widespread praise from critics, with the sequel being hailed as 'a glorious, glamorous tribute to the Noughties'. The follow-up to the iconic 2006 hit, starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, initially left fans nervous about its ability to match the original, but the film has been deemed a 'sublime' return to the world of Runway magazine.
Critical Acclaim and Star Ratings
The Independent, Daily Mail, Telegraph, and The Times all awarded the movie four stars, while the lowest reviews were a respectable three stars. Critics have described it as 'good-natured, buoyant entertainment' and noted that 'it's a savvy circular touch that brings Weisberger's book back into play'.
Performance of the Original Cast
In a four-star review, The Independent's Clarisse Loughrey praised Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt. She wrote: 'The main quartet were so well-suited to their original roles that all Streep needs to do is play thoughtfully with a beaded necklace and, instantly, it's like Miranda never left us... Andy is no longer the naïf, but we've enjoyed two decades of increasingly confident, impassioned characters from Hathaway, so the maturation is basically a given... Blunt happily walks away with some of the best line deliveries.'
Amy Nicholson of the LA Times offered a more nuanced view: 'The storytelling is wonky, given the film's competing needs to be Miranda-blunt about the modern magazine business while pairing marvelously with a glass of rosé... The movie is simultaneously more depressing than the original and more saccharine, with a repellent amount of affection between characters who should know better.'
Reviews from Major Outlets
- Empire (Three stars): 'Hathaway maintains plucky affability despite her character becoming more world-weary, while Blunt's comedic timing and flashes of vulnerability save the film from feeling too serious... At its epicentre, Streep lets us a little deeper into Miranda's psyche without losing that magnetic elusiveness.'
- The Guardian (Three stars): 'This follow-up is fun, though let down by Andy's bafflingly dreary and chemistry-free romance with a dull Australian real estate magnate... This is good-natured, buoyant entertainment. It's wearing well.'
- The Telegraph (Four stars): 'An avalanche of fashion-world cameos and a crack returning cast turn this sequel into a millennial nostalgia bath – who's complaining? Like Tom Cruise grinning away in the cockpit in Top Gun: Maverick, Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly is back, exactly as you remember. The film is a glorious, glamorous tribute to the noughties with acid wit and unabashed love of luxury and glamour.'
- The Times (Four stars): 'It's a savvy circular touch that brings Weisberger's book back into play and provides the drama with that most elusive of modern film accessories: satisfying closure... Hathaway once again injects Andy with just the right hint of perky naivety to maintain her status as the clueless straight woman to her co-star's scheming diva.'
- Daily Mail - Brian Viner (Four stars): 'The Devil Wears Prada 2 is smart and funny, and there are plenty of satisfying one-liners indicating how the world has changed in 20 years. I laughed aloud at one of them, when a disaffected books editor complains about her latest project 'editing a memoir by one of Paris Hilton's chihuahuas.'
- Daily Mail - Alexandra Shulman (Four stars): 'The Devil Wears Prada 2 is endlessly self-referential, harking back to some of the best jokes in the original, while also uncannily predicting situations the new order throws up. It's high-voltage, sparkling fun. And some fun is surely what we all need right now.'
Mixed but Positive Reception
Variety noted: 'The good news is that 'The Devil Wears Prada 2' is not willfully enshittified. It's a sequel made with intelligence and respect for both its predecessor and the legions who still love it... But it is, by almost any metric, a lesser movie: narratively, emotionally and cinematically flatter, buoyed by game performances that nonetheless steadfastly fail to surprise.'
The Financial Times highlighted the film's enduring wit: 'Some things don't change, though. In the new film, one Runway editor asks of a corporate type intent on cost-cutting: 'Does he even like fashion, he wears Drakkar Noir,' dismissing him as 'dressing head to toe in performance synthetics'. Magazines may have passed their heyday, but the spicy put-downs endure.'
Former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, who gave four stars, reflected: 'Anyone who has a more forensic approach to film might question Andy's clumsily added-on love interest and Miranda's equally unlikely soppy husband, played by Kenneth Branagh... They could definitely quibble about the ludicrous way Andy is brought back into the magazine and grumble about the ponderous start... But they couldn't deny that it's high-voltage, sparkling fun.'
The Daily Mail's Brian Viner concluded: 'So, this eagerly awaited sequel, with the same director-writer combination in Frankel and Aline Brosh McKenna, has expensive Jimmy Choos to fill... Happily it steps into them pretty stylishly, with the original quartet returning and doing as fine a job as you might expect... In truth it isn't quite as enjoyable as the first film, because the satire doesn't bite as hard. That's maybe because its target is not so much fashion as journalism and publishing... Heaven knows, those domains aren't exactly immune from mickey-taking either, but the mockery doesn't flow as easily. Nonetheless, The Devil Wears Prada 2 is smart and funny, and there are plenty of satisfying one-liners indicating how the world has changed in 20 years.'
