The sequel to Netflix's hit movie The Kissing Booth doesn't always make the most sense.
Netflix's The Kissing Booth 2 continues the story of Elle, who now has to navigate her last year of high school without her boyfriend Noah, who left to go to Harvard. Elle struggles with being away from him and deciding where to go to college, all in the midst of another kissing booth and a dance competition. On top of that, her best friend Lee has a girlfriend who doesn't like her and Elle just can't decide what to do with her life.
So much happens in The Kissing Booth 2, from love triangles to conflict and the introduction of new characters and some parts are fun while others are quite questionable.
Elle derails a lot of her original college choices because she wants to be with Noah, which is the first red flag of the film. She constantly goes on about how she has to go to Berklee with Lee, and the most unrealistic thing about this is that at the start of the film, Berklee is the only school that Elle applies to. She then applies to Ivy League universities because she wants to spend time with her boyfriend.
The Kissing Booth series revolves around Elle and Lee's love for Dance Dance Revolution, and there are several scenes throughout both movies that are dedicated to them just playing the game at the arcade, but the sequel takes it to another level. The main plot consists of Lee and Elle entering the competition, as it's the only thing they think they're good at.
Elle and Lee have a list of set friendship rules which neither are allowed to break; the more they mention them the less sense it starts to make. They have rules like having to go to the same college, and Elle not being allowed to date Noah because he's Lee's brother. If they're basing their friendship on those rules, then Elle has already broken so many.
Like almost every situation in The Kissing Booth series, Elle overreacts to almost everything, including the earring that is under Noah's bed. Any sane person would just ask their partner what the situation is and then just talk through it until it's resolved.
The whole thing gets blown out of proportion and ends up in a big argument where Elle assumes that Noah is cheating on her when Chloe just ended up losing an earring under his bed because she stayed over at his place without telling him.
The start of the movie builds up the kissing booth like fans are about to watch the same film twice, but in the end, it's not even a focal point of the movie. There is a whole build-up to getting Marco to take part in this year's kissing booth when by the end of the movie, it doesn't really matter anymore.
Throughout The Kissing Booth 2, there is an ongoing love triangle between Ella, Noah, and Marco. Because Noah is away at college and Elle is spending all of her time with Marco practicing for the dance competition, Elle starts to question who she wants to be with. The whole subplot is rushed and isn't fleshed out enough. Noah and Marco meet and act as if they're enemies, and it feels very strange.
New Kissing Booth character Marco is introduced as a cute boy who is a musician and also happens to be great at the dance arcade game that Elle is so obsessed with. His character is kind of pointless because he's only really there for Elle and there's not much to him otherwise. He could have had a real impact on her character and it kind of fell flat.
The school announcements in The Kissing Booth 2 are just bizarre. A whole section of the film includes Elle embarrassing herself by talking about Marco and the entire school can hear it.
Later in the movie, Lee uses the speaker to confess his love for Rachel, once again in front of the whole school. It's so awkward and there's no need for the entire school to hear what's happening in their lives.
Elle enters the dance competition because she needs the money if she wants to go to college. However, the cash prize that she gets for winning won't even cover all of the tuition, and her expectation that it'll pay for school is completely unrealistic. She doesn't even get to celebrate her win because she cheats on Noah by kissing Marco when she's got no idea that Noah is in the audience to surprise her.
Elle and Rachel's back-and-forth feud starts to get exhausting, and the whole thing is based on miscommunication. It would have made much more sense for Rachel to just approach Elle directly and tell her what was wrong; it could have saved a lot more time and drama. Rachel constantly scolds Lee about Elle but never actually tells her that she's got a problem with him.
