It is indeed the end of an era. I remember the first movie all had us in a chokehold, which I believe partly had to do with the fact that the titular characters were dating in real life. I didn’t enjoy the second movie as much as I enjoyed the first, so I wasn’t anticipating the third movie at all. So watching the third and final part for me was to get some closure. If not for anything, we all wanted to know how the story of Elle and Noah would end. It wasn’t the best Movie Finale, but it was a tremendous step from the second movie and for a movie finale it wasn’t too shabby. Spoiler Alert ahead. I promise I didn’t give too much away.
First off, when did getting into Harvard get so easy?? I mean, Elle getting into Harvard was believable, but Noah getting into Harvard certainly made no sense and I would still need to have a word with the writer on that. One thing this movie did for sure was to downside the struggles of getting into an Ivy League School.
Now what I had a big problem with was Elle wanting to go to school to please either her best friend or boyfriend. Who does that? Teenagers shouldn’t be that dumb, I hope. So are you telling me she got into three amazing schools just to end up with the decision to satisfy either her boyfriend or best friend by going to the same school as theirs? She had quite a lot to consider before reaching that absurdity of a decision. For example, she had her passion, the COST, proximity to home where her FAMILY lives and so many other things to consider, but the only reasoning behind her decision was her boyfriend and best friend. That wasn’t the crazy part of the movie, the crazy part was that Elle literally spent the whole of the movie trying to make it up to Lee, her childish and annoying best friend who was pissed that his best friend got into Harvard as opposed to Berkeley that they initially planned to attend together. What kind of best friend does that? This part of the movie had me pissed, and it wasn’t quite realistic, but the upside was she saw things from a different perspective thanks to Noah’s mum. This highlighted the struggles and beauty of growing up and having to make some hard decisions, which I found quite endearing.
The plot was a bit lacking for me and too repetitive. We went through the whole love triangle drama in the second movie, so why do it again in the third movie. This was the last movie, so I expected more depth in the plot. It’s the finale, so I expected they would at least want to go out with a bang. Noah being the jealous boyfriend was getting a bit too old but what else would you expect from a teen romance movie. Marco character wasn’t needed, the least they could have done was to implement some character growth of some sort that had nothing to do with Elle, but apparently, the entire existence of Marco was because of Elle, so that would have been a total failure. Marcus deserved better. Chloe was another character that wasn’t needed too, but she had to fill up space apparently because that movie needed all the help it could get. It was 2 hours long.
Asides from Elle being immature in this last movie, she was also very whiny. She had a family that adored her, a best friend that cared for her howbeit it came from a selfish point of view and she had two attractive guys fighting over her but she still complained a lot and was even angry with her dad for finding love after dedicating his live to her and her younger brother. That asides, best friends don’t need to have a rule book to keep a friendship so the whole point of the rule book still being a thing in the final movie was sketchy for me and let’s not even get started on the ridiculous beach bucket list they had to do all summer, Elle was doing too much for the supposed friendship and Lee wasn’t doing enough.
Now let’s talk about the part of the movie I liked. The soundtrack was amazing, and some songs were so nostalgic. So if you are a big music lover like I am, you might want to stick it out because you won’t be disappointed. Contrary to popular opinion, for the longest, I felt Elle had better chemistry with Lee, so I wasn’t mad about their friendship dynamic in this last movie regardless of how annoying, selfish and insensitive Lee was. The ending stood out the most in this movie. It wasn’t what we all expected, but it was oddly satisfying. It had a bittersweet end, and it goes to show how life isn’t perfect and we don’t always get what we want and it’s okay. There was no happily ever and after and I respected that a lot.
Here are my final thoughts. The plot was a bit lacking; we all know the acting wasn’t the best; the music was amazing, and it had a fulfilling and a well thought out ending. I would rate The Kissing Booth 3 a solid 5.5 out of 10. Would I watch it again, probably not, but if you had followed Elle and Noah through their journey, it is only reasonable to watch and see how it ends.
