It’s been said that the sequel is never as good as the first. This saying definitely applies to the Kissing Booth 2. With Joey King and Jacob Elordi both moving on to more serious TV shows, I was foolish enough to believe that they would be done with the movie franchise. However, I was unfortunately wrong when a trailer was released for the second movie in the series. Despite the original Kissing Booth having a solid ending that finished with everyone being in a happy relationship, Netflix decided that it was not enough and a second movie needed to be made.

The Kissing Booth 2 focuses on the main character Elle (King) and her changing relationship with her boyfriend Noah (Elordi) now that he is in college. She is trying to juggle the feeling that Noah will cheat on her, her budding feelings for the new kid named Marco (Taylor Zakhar Perez) and her friendship with Noah’s brother Lee (Joel Courtney). Her suspicions about Noah continue to grow throughout the film as he grows closer to his college friend, Chloe (Maisie Richardson-Sellers).

My main issue with the movie is that Elle is the most unlikeable character that Netflix could’ve come up with. Her personality consists of being awkward and complaining about other characters. Throughout the movie, she constantly whines about Noah’s friendship with Chloe. Instead of trusting her boyfriend, Elle decides to constantly ignore his efforts and believe the worst about him. 

Meanwhile, she is basically cheating on him with the new guy, Marco. While visiting Noah at college for a weekend, she finds an earring under his bed and completely freaks out. Because of this, she makes excuses for herself to go on romantic outings with Marco. Elle spends the entire movie playing with two guys’ emotions instead of communicating with others about her own. She refuses to confront Noah about what she saw, but she also doesn’t acknowledge the budding feelings she has for Marco.

Another big plot line in the movie is college. It’s Elle’s senior year, and she is one step closer to going to UC Berkeley with her best friend, Lee. However, she quickly takes a break from her dream to apply to Harvard to be with Noah. This conflict carries throughout the whole movie and even sets up the plot for the third movie which is coming out soon. To me, it seems like Elle has known where she wants to go to school all along but is throwing her plans away to be with a boy.

Elle thinks she has it all figured out until her dad tells her that he doesn’t know if he could afford for her to attend Harvard. This gave me a good laugh because she lives in Los Angeles, in a home that easily costs over $5 million and attends a private school that probably costs the same as a college tuition. Nevertheless, she decides to earn this money through a Dance Dance Mania competition rather than by getting a job and earning scholarship money. The Kissing Booth 2 makes it seem like both schools are very easy to get into considering that Elle is an average high school teenager with an average GPA and only one extracurricular. Also, her brilliant essay topic revolved around a kissing booth at a carnival.

Besides the college conflict, every other problem in the movie could’ve been solved if the characters would have just talked to each other. While an earring under Noah’s bed is suspicious, Elle didn’t even ask him about it before jumping to conclusions. If she would’ve picked up the phone and asked him what it was from, the two hour run time of the movie would have been split in half.

While this is one of the most problematic films I’ve ever watched, it can still be fun to watch with friends and have a good laugh. For anyone who likes watching trashy movies or television, this could definitely be a good choice. However, The Kissing Booth 2 is not a quality movie by any means, so for those who want to watch a genuinely good movie I would recommend something else.