Netflix’s The Kissing Booth 3 – A Trilogy Ends With A Dud

Though it didn’t seem possible, the Kissing Booth series, based on the book series of the same name by Beth Reekles, got a trilogy of films. Regardless of one may think of the cheesy teen melodrama series that arguably caters to teen and tween viewers over anyone else, they continue to support it thus fueling the demand for this trilogy. Suffice it to say that this does not change with the aptly-named The Kissing Booth 3. While fans of the franchise will surely continue to support this final film in the franchise and those who are not will continue to go on with their lives and there is certainly nothing wrong with either of those. When it comes to this film, it is unfortunately a dud whose most glaring fault is now how unnecessary it is but rather how it stretches out a paper thin story over the course of its nearly 2 hour running time that will more than likely feel longer than that. The film is merely a collection of scenes that amount to next to nothing more than empty and dull melodrama in an attempt to justify that long running time.

Now, The Kissing Booth 3 can never be accused of being a cerebral film by any means, it is predictable to a tee and should not come as that much of a surprise to anyone who has ever seen a teen movie ever. The film for the most part was made up of bit and pieces of other teen dramas with little to no cohesion whatsoever to the point of caring about very little of it. While incredibly innocent and stupid, the previous two films in the series had some fun to them. However, this was certainly not the case as the mess of subplots held together by vanilla writing and direction essentially robbed it of fun. The story here saw Elle (King), Lee (Courtney), and Noah (Elordi) spend one last summer before all setting out for college all the while Elle had a big decision to make that threatened to change the course of the rest of her life. Having been accepted to college on opposite coasts, she would have to choose between going to Berkley with Lee like they had planned to do since they were kids or go to Harvard with her boyfriend and Lee’s older brother Noah.

This choice put Elle in a compromising position as she had to choose one brother over the other. Trying to make it work and cushion the blow for the other, she set that aside but that cloud still loomed large over the three as they spend one more summer together while they helped get the Flynn summer house ready for it to be sold. In the end, that distraction inevitably did not last forever as Elle put herself in a corner by not trying to hurt both brothers. In doing so, she grew even further apart from each. In addition to that, she had to contend with a new woman in her single father’s life. Meanwhile, the reality of growing up and everything that meant for each of their relationships made for a real learning experience for the three of them. Viewers can count on plenty of drama as far as that was concerned. In the end, the question of where their relationships will end up by the end of the summer was the only thing that truly mattered. With some predictable ups and downs along the way, the outcome was never in doubt.

Though the vanilla writing and directing didn’t do them any favors, the acting within The Kissing Booth 3 was the best part though was just okay. The story may be a dull mess that saw the characters woodenly sleepwalk through the proceedings rather than be young and have fun, something that made the first two films sort of fun. That being said, they still had their moments but they were few and far between. The chemistry between King and Courtney as Elle and Lee continued to be strong here while the chemistry between King and Elordi as Noah took a hit here due to the wooden nature of the latter.

At the end of the day, The Kissing Booth 3 reeks of something that no one really wanted to be there for but had to do anyway for contractual reasons. The lack of fun on screen was clear so why should we have fun while watching?

still courtesy of Netflix

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.