Movie Review: The Kissing Booth 2

This was movie #9/20 (#23 overall) that I watched for my 20 for 2020 challenge. This movie was released on Netflix on July 24, 2020. Since this was the second movie there may be spoilers for the first movie.

I never watched the first Kissing Booth movie but I had heard that it was actually a really cute teen romantic comedy. I marathoned The Kissing Booth and The Kissing Booth 2. I won't be doing a full review of The Kissing Booth since that movie is old news, I may have a mini review in my monthly recap. But I actually really liked the first one. I thought it was a cute, silly little movie. I really liked the three main characters and really rooted for Elle and Noah. The second movie was a different story though.

I think The Kissing Booth 2 suffers a lot of the same problems as To All The Boys: P.S. I Love You (TATB2). It didn’t feel like a story that needed to have a sequel. The first movie was a cute little standalone. At least The Kissing Booth 2 didn’t retcon the original story like TATB2 did, so that is one pro about it (at least in comparison). I think it was just pretty boring. The new love interest was treated in a similar way that the new love interest was treated in TATB2. They were both just treated as the new leg on the love triangle even though you know that they aren’t a serious contender (even though they are arguably a better match). It’s also the same thing as TATB2 where it’s all about the conflict between the original couple. It's kind of just depressing to watch. There weren’t really any cute, romantic moments. I think the actors were fine, I just think they didn’t have much material to work with here. I do like that these movies subvert the “childhood best friend that actually has a crush on the main character” trope. Elle and Lee being a leg on the love triangle isn’t ever really a thing which I appreciate. That’s about the only thing I like about the movie though. Another thing that I didn’t like was what they did with Rachel’s character. That conflict felt a little forced. It felt like they just came up with that as something to make this movie semi-interesting. Even though I didn’t like this movie, I’m still hopeful that the next one will be better.

Overall I just thought the movie was pretty boring. There wasn’t much romance, it was more of a teen drama. I’d give this a 4/10. If you have any thoughts on this movie, be sure to let me know in the comments!