When The Kissing Booth first came out, it was my go-to movie to watch with friends. The quick and easy plot, the attractive characters, PLUS a perfect romance every girl wants in high school? I absolutely loved it. But this is also why I was completely underwhelmed and disappointed with the sequel. 

      The Kissing Booth 2 continues right where we left off in the first movie. Our quirky and loveable protagonist Elle and her bad-boy Harvard-bound boyfriend, Noah, have decided to try a long-distance relationship. Off the bat, this movie is quite different from the original as the focus is not only on Elle and Noah but also on Elle’s best friend Flynn and his new girlfriend Rachel. While the somewhat cheesy cliches and perfect endings in the first movie were what made me love it so much; those same cliches were what ruined the second movie for me. 

     Elle and Noah were supposed to be the perfect couple we all want to be. Sure, I understand that long-distance relationships are a situation most high school couples dread, and Netflix probably just wanted this movie to be “relatable,” but the first movie was so stereotypically perfect that this movie was unnecessary. 

    The unlikely love triangle also made me like the sequel less. I personally don’t think that Elle’s budding feelings for a new student were realistic, especially seeing how obsessed she was with Noah. I also think that this triangle is too similar to the love triangle created in other summer sequels this year. Love triangles that interrupt beloved movie matches tend to all end the same way and are simply too predictable to be interesting. 

     What bothered me the most was how all the female characters only cared about boyfriends and relationships. In the first movie, Elle just happens to fall for her best friend’s brother, but in the sequel, all of her time is basically consumed by her relationship despite the fact that she is a high school senior about to go to college. Just like Elle, I’m a high school senior, and I can guarantee you that applying to both UC Berkeley and Harvard is very time consuming and not as simple as this movie made it. I give this movie a solid B-. It’s easy to watch while doing homework or hanging out with friends, but I really wouldn’t watch it on my own again.