These days, Hollywood is quite frequently revisiting popular films with the sequel treatment, sometimes many years after the original made an impact. THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA became a box office hit and cult classic two decades ago, finding a passionate audience that were happy to watch it over and over in the years that followed. Now, 20 years later, we’re getting THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2, which brings back most of the original cast, and tries to show them evolving into present day trappings and trends. While the characters all seem mostly the same, the script this time struggles to find its footing.

The story opens with two major events – the first being journalist Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) winning a prestigious award while simultaneously finding out the newspaper she writes for has been shut down – and the second being a reveal that Runway (now online and not a physical magazine anymore) got a story and details embarrassingly wrong, and it’s so bad they need a miracle to save face. Runway’s owner Irv Ravitz (Tibor Feldman) sees what happened to Andy, which has made her a viral hero, and decides to hire her to spin the negativity into positivity, and hopefully keep Runway from imploding. But he does so without warning Runway head Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), who is already having trouble adjusting to modern day sensitivity and censorship. She’s not happy losing control of her empire, and soon must make sacrifices to keep things afloat. Andy reconnects with old co-workers Nigel (Stanley Tucci) and Emily (Emily Blunt), and also finds herself meeting a new love interest in an apartment landlord played by Patrick Brammall (EVIL). And as challenges are already mounting, Irv unexpectedly passes away, leaving his fashion-inept son (played by THE OFFICE’s B.J. Novak) taking over directives, and really stifling Miranda’s plans, all leading up to a major fashion show in Madrid.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the original film, but I enjoyed it enough to be casually interested in a sequel, and I fully understand its appeal. That said, I was surprised at how bland the sequel was, and how despite bringing back most of the original characters and the same director of the original film, this one just lacks the magic and charm of the first film in a big way. For starters, the character of Miranda, played so devilishly well in the first movie by Meryl Streep, is so restrained here that she just isn’t very interesting. She spends most of the movie seeming like she doesn’t care anymore, giving in to executive overreach and HR censorship, and never really showing much initiative or power until the final moments. It feels like the neutered the character, and the film suffers for it. There are moments in the story which could have been explored much better, and made Miranda a more engaging character in the overall story. For example, there’s a scene where the staff has to cut costs for their big trip, and we see Miranda boarding a plane and begrudgingly working her way back to the coach section where she is clearly uncomfortable… and THAT should have been the whole movie, Miranda being forced to live like a normal person, and returning to power only at the end, or perhaps even learning to adapt to a more simple life… instead it’s a small joke in a bigger story, and that’s a shame.

Anne Hathaway as Andy seems to just be going through the motions, also not feeling very evolved or terribly interesting here. You can tell Hathaway is trying to find to right beat with her character, but the script just doesn’t offer many unexpected twists. Even Stanley Tucci’s take here as Nigel is just more of the same, which is especially disappointing as again there were opportunities to do bigger things with his role. Emily Blunt has a smaller part here and her character is no longer working for Miranda, which offered some potential conflict, and there is a smart twist revealed late in the movie, but the writing just comes across as underdeveloped for her, which is frustrating since she’s such a great actress. Even the usually brilliant Justin Theroux can’t do much to save the story playing a sort of wealthy idiot who gives in too easily to the women he loves. I enjoyed seeing Lucy Liu in what’s almost an extended cameo, but even her character just isn’t fleshed out very well.

There are story elements peppered in the screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna that are introduced and never really paid off, such as a very forced relationship between Andy and a guy she meets while looking at an apartment. It honestly feels like they just wanted Hathaway to have a love interest in the script, so they forced in this meet/cute dynamic that doesn’t really serve the story, and could have been left out entirely. There’s also a concept established that Nigel has been overlooked a lot through the years by Miranda, and at one point it looks like he’ll lose his job entirely, and I was waiting for Stanley Tucci to really show anger and emotion, reacting to the circumstances and history that led up to where he is now… and instead, he just seems complacent, much the way Miranda does when she’s faced with annoying developments. Even the lightly-mentioned idea of how magazines are going away and online blogs are more about clicks and headlines than actual content, or the fact that the fashion world has changed a lot in the last two decades… these are merely footnotes in a movie that could have used them more.

That’s not to say the film doesn’t have its moments, as there are some solid laughs and good character interactions, but in the end the entire exercise is just a tad forgettable and underwhelming. As a sequel, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 is serviceable and offers enough to have fans of the original smiling, but as a movie it’s just not anything special or memorable, and considering we waited 20 years to get it, that’s a real gut punch. This is one of those productions that will likely make good money just based on its existing fandom, but it really could have been so much more.

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