If you have followed Netflix’s most recent original movies these past years, you may have heard of or watched The Kissing Booth, and if so then you may be aware that they have recently released the third and final movie this August.

The series has followed high school student Elle Evans, and her dilemma of falling for her best friend Lee Flynn’s brother Noah. Elle and Lee have a friendship built on rules they made when they were kids, one of those rules was that Noah was off-limits to Elle. So you could see how this could create a rocky relationship for her and Noah as well as Lee as the movies continue. Even after three movies, Lee doesn’t seem to be okay with the relationship because of the favoritism that Noah is shown in any aspect of Elle’s life anymore.

Here is the thing, I wasn’t expecting a lot from this movie. Like, the bar was on the floor.

The first movie wasn’t even great, but when it came out I was in high school and it was there with To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. Stupid but kind of cute and in my age range. One of those stupidly romantic movies that aren’t practical at all and you know it but that’s why they were fun.

The second one still wasn’t great, but it was fine and it was still that cutesy type of movie I was looking for. So whatever I’ll take it, 

With this third one it was as if they started with the familiarity of the cutesy stuff, and then threw it out the window and smacked you with “reality”. It went from a bunch of teenagers dancing to “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon in a fancy restaurant and not getting kicked out, to everyone breaking up and moving away for college, showing that your childhood plans don’t always happen. 

I have mixed feelings on how this last movie went, I like that they finally showed how toxic Noah and Elle’s relationship was. Noah was way too overprotective of Elle, as we are shown in the first movie when he tells the other boys in the school to stay away from her all the while not pursuing her himself and leaving her thinking no one wanted her. And not to mention his anger issues that he struggled with and never sought help for. 

Elle was a people pleaser to the point of setting no boundaries in her life and letting all lines in her life blur. Causing relationship problems, friendship problems, and her own life problems. 

The only good thing about this last movie is that they tried to address these things towards the end. We see Noah getting into a fight with Marcus, when he was punched he decided to walk away instead of sticking around and fighting him. Elle was going 90 miles an hour in 12 different directions until she couldn’t anymore, forcing her to come to a halt and have a talk with Mrs. Flynn, and is told to think about herself when Noah breaks up with her and she is left deciding on a college again. 

But on the other hand, I didn’t like how it felt more as though it was a drama and not a rom-com. Plus the acting was way worse but that’s a different article. They tried to make the film more realistic and less of the teenage rom-com that it started out to be. It tried harder than it needed to while just reusing content and characters. Marcus and Chloe only came back to cause problems and offered nothing to the movie except the Mario Kart scene.

In conclusion, because if I don’t stop now it will be a 2,000-word review, the movie took an interesting twist for a conclusion to the series, but I don’t think it was worth the watch.