The highly anticipated third film in The Kissing Booth series from Netflix was released yesterday. Joey King, Joel Courtney, Jacob Elordi, Meganne Young and Taylor Zakhar Perez returned for the final installment in the series.
Warning: there are spoilers for The Kissing Booth 3 below.
Unfortunately, The Kissing Booth 3 misses the mark on what made us love the first two films. In this film, Elle, Noah, and Lee are disappointed to hear that the Flynns’ parents are selling their beloved beach house, one they went to every summer. The three, along with Lee’s girlfriend Rachel, decide to stay the summer at the beach house and make it one great last summer.
Throw in Elle’s college acceptance turmoil, Marco returning, and a bucket list of items for the summer, the drama just seems almost completely unnecessary. The characters seem to do things completely amiss from the first two films, such as the way Elle acts towards her father’s girlfriend or the fact that she still hides secrets from Noah and Lee, which she seemed to have learned from the first films. There were also some scenes that had very noticeable green screens, which therefore made the film seem really lacking in quality.
There were definite points to love about this, such as Elle finding herself and putting herself first above all others, but it just didn’t have the same magic as the first two films. King, Courtney, Elordi, Young and Zakhar Perez were also great in their respective roles as usual. It was interesting to see the end of the film, which shows the characters six years later ending up right back at the kissing booth. That was a fun, nostalgic place to end up at. However, all of that doesn’t seem to outweigh the obvious issues with this film.
Overall, while it’s an interesting end to a beloved Netflix series, the story was out of place, lacking the fun from the first two films, and left us wanting a different ending.
