The Kissing Booth 3 review: Phew, finally, it’s a goodbye kiss from Joey King-led Netflix trilogy

2.5/5

Elle (Joey King) plans the ultimate bucket list as she is determined to make the most of her final summer before college. She also navigates what comes next with Noah (Jacob Elordi) and Lee (Joel Courtney).

This year began with an end of one teen romcom franchise To All the Boys and now another one has kissed goodbye for good. The Kissing Booth 3 is the final film of the hit YA franchise, and we should thank the makers for that. It’s a bland show with a lot of preachy quotes which are done and dusted already. The second film ended with Elle getting accepted in both Berkeley and Harvard and thus starts her journey which is more of a Sophie's Choice.

We often read quotes on social media about a step to happiness is self-love. It took three films for Elle's character to get that point, but that too is not something she learns by herself. After watching the first two films, one would say that it’s high time Elle made a decision favourable to herself and not to please her partner or her best friend. Finally, she came along but it doesn’t bring weight to the film.

The film takes place during the summers spent at a beach house with a lot of other characters bouncing back and forth making it all chaotic. The basic four leads - Joey King (Elle Evans), Joel Courtney (Lee Flynn), Jacob Elordi (Noah Flynn) and Meganne Young (Rachel) leave no stone unturned in making the most of their final days together by fulfilling the BFFs beach bucket list before stepping into the new beginnings.

From Mario-style go-karting, flash mobs to chilling at a water park and having the ultimate beach pool party, the four of them fulfil the desire and aspirations of many teenagers. All the fun on one side and minuscule worry on the other don’t help the narration go further. The loop of worries surrounding the triangle of relationships makes the film tiresome to watch after a point in time. The vibrant set-up, which reportedly is shot in South Africa, can make you add the destination to your bucket list but not really enjoy the one by Elle and Lee.

Love triangles can be awkward for the characters involved in it, but the ones shown in the film continue to make the viewers awkward too. Taylor Zakhar Perez and Maisie Richardson-Sellers reprise their characters Marco Valentin Peña and Chloe Winthrop, respectively. Yes, they try to mess up things for Elle and Noah but the couple along with Lee are more to be blamed here. The age-old mistakes are repeated with Noah showing his possessive side and Lee expecting loyalty from Elle as if she owes it to him.

There are a few good vibes oozed by the characters with over-the-top cheesy scenes, but the problematic approach stays the same throughout. The film finally shows a conclusion that should have happened way before making it an anti-climactic situation and not the actual end.

With a lot of loose ends, the characters grow eventually but they don't make up for the drab and melodramatic screenplay which ruins the movie at many levels.

Although the screenplay is penned by the director Vince Marcello and Jay Arnold, they could have held the creative liberty of making the script crispier than the novel The Kissing Booth 2: One Last Time by the young author Beth Reekles.

Don't start the franchise if you discover it now and don't expect a wow end to the teenage rom com The Kissing Booth 3.