"The Devil Wears Prada 2" tackles big betrayal

‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ is playing at Fox Theaters in downtown Fort Madison, a surprisingly evolved sequel scoring a 78% on Rotten Tomatoes, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, is ranked the second-best opening globally and as a Hollywood title.
The sequel maintains its commitment to show the cost of success and ambition, and now the new weapon of AI and greedy tech billionaires which can dismantle the integrity of decades of hard work, art, and journalism.
The original movie is about Andy Sach’s journey losing her integrity and personal relationships in favor of success while working as a junior assistant for editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly, becoming and eventually discarding the qualities of the ruthless boss from herself by the end of the movie.
In the beginning of the sequel, Andy and her editorial team are fired by their publication company while accepting an award for her investigative reporting. While looking for a new job, Andy’s friends propose her writing an expose on her former boss, Miranda. At the same time, a cancelled Miranda needs a PR makeover after Runway Magazine promotes a problematic brand, so they hire Andy after her viral award speech on big corporations destroying journalism.
Nigel, the longtime creative director and right-hand man of Miranda, has to remind the unflinchingly cold Miranda that Andy was once a very notable assistant with the integrity and now experience to lead them through this PR crisis while she runs the features department. Andy also reunites with her former Runway coworker and Miranda’s old assistant Emily, a top Dior executive.
Andy needs to restore Miranda’s credibility, and finds a perfect solution when she hears Miranda wants an interview with Sasha Barnes, a famously private philanthropist who hasn’t been public since her divorce with Emily’s tech billionaire boyfriend. Andy uses her investigative journalism experience to contact everyone up the ladder to get Sasha.
After securing the interview, they both go to Sasha’s home where Miranda interviews her. Here, we see her true integrity as Sasha asks Miranda why she hasn’t asked about her scandalous divorce.
“Why should you be defined by that marriage? He isn’t,” Miranda says in response.
Andy writes up the profile on the interview, both of which go viral, landing Runway in better favor with the public.
Miranda’s boss, Irv, unexpectedly passes, leaving his son Jay in charge of the company. Andy and Emily team up to save the company and get investors behind it. Jay wants to sell it to Benji who wants to replace staff with AI and make Emily editor-in-chief. Emily’s betrayal to Miranda is revealed to be a part of a long-standing vendetta and leaves Andy and Miranda shocked.
Runway Magazine is getting taken away right from under Miranda’s feet, yet she still shakes Emily as she says she doesn't have what it takes to do the job she stole.
Miranda signs onto Andy’s plan to save Runway by contacting Sasha to be a competing buyer. Irv’s son sells Runway to Sasha at the last minute during an excruciating lunch with Benji and Emily. During Milan Fashion Week, Miranda shows appreciation and recognition to Nigel, who sacrificed his own career for Miranda over the years by staying in the same role, by having him present the keynote speech. Nigel also reveals to Andy he was the one who planned to hire her back, knowing she was the key to helping save the magazine’s image. Miranda tells Andy she found out about the expose offer and tells her to write it, saying that people should know the cost of her type of success and power. She emphasizes that her personal sacrifices were worth it in the end because she loves to work, a shared quality they both share a knowing smile over. Sasha promises to give the Runway team full creative control and promotes Miranda to Head of Content, where she will continue to work with Andy and Nigel.
The film received critical praise for not repeating itself and grappling with art and journalism’s current biggest threats. Negative opinions on the movie are on the disdain of modern film color-grading, and the story of multi-faceted characters ending too simply just to fit a narrative about how bad AI is.
The movie has enriching cinematic elements that are more subdued and less obvious than specific color grading. When they are in Milan, “The Last Supper” painting overlooks Miranda and her team hosting a dinner with executives and colleagues at a dinner in an ancient part of town, reflecting a scene of a powerful person with eyes and backstabbers surrounding her. Miranda also uses the painting to reflect on the current industry, saying people will “inevitably disappoint one another,” and how moral sacrifices are necessary for those who want to be and remain at the top.
A couple of comedic elements take place when Miranda no longer has an assistant to throw her coat on, but instead displays a painstaking, dramatic attempt at putting it on a hanger and stuffing in the closet before exasperatingly collapsing against the door as Andy watches in awe.
Both Miranda and Andy are mirrors to each other, besides the fact that they can betray and be betrayed in their ambitious journeys, they are also women who prioritize their career over a traditional life as being more of a wife or mother above everything. If these women were men, you wouldn’t be asking yourself why these women did not settle down.
There is a fine line to tread when mixing a sequel of a specific story with commentary on AI, if you focus on one subject more than the other, you risk diluting your point. "The Devil Wears Prada 2” reasserts itself as a wink to the modern woman, stays true to its iconic characteristics, from the characters’ sharp wit to Miranda’s impossibly chic hair, while bringing light to the incoming and real threat of big tech taking over human artistic innovation.