YMMV / The Kissing Booth 3

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Are Marco's actions towards Elle throughout the film - e.g. acting as The Confidant, offering her comfort, taking part in the Mario Kart-themed race - motivated purely by him wanting to win her over romantically and doing everything he can to impress her? Or is it because he genuinely cares about her and just wants to make her happy; in other words, are his motives more self-centered or more altruistic? It could even be both; maybe even Marco himself doesn't consciously realize what he's trying to do until much later in the movie. Furthermore, it could be argued that Marco may interpret Elle's friendliness towards him and willingness to confide in him about her personal issues as approval of his actions and potential reciprocation (especially seeing as they got very close in the previous film).
  • The film's epilogue seems to indicate that Elle and Noah haven't seen each other or spoken much for six years, despite their families being so close and it being likely they would've both gone back to LA at some point to visit their families. Were they just too busy with other things to hang out? Or was the break-up so painful for them that they actively avoided each other until they got over it?
• Arc Fatigue: More than a few viewers expressed exasperation that Elle and Lee's friendship rules are still the source of much of the story's conflict after three movies, especially given the first movie already established how many of their rules have been outgrown, cannot always be realistically applied, and at worst makes their friendship come across as controlling and dysfunctional (not helping is that they came up with these rules when they were in elementary school and they're now legally adults). During Elle and Lee's big blow-up in this movie's third act Elle furiously declares that their friendship rules are officially over, which lots of viewers felt should've been over and done with long before.
• Ass Pull: Elle deciding she wants to become a video game designer. While she is shown to enjoy playing video games a few times, there's never a scene that establishes her as being super passionate about the field, so her deciding this is what she wants to do after graduating feels like a last minute development.
• Broken Aesop: A plot point that is emphasized is Mr. and Mrs. Flynn deciding to sell the beach house for redevelopment. Elle, Noah, and Lee are initially opposed, but eventually relent and clean it up per their agreement in return for spending their summer there. However, Mrs. Flynn chooses to pull out of the sale, literally at the last second, upon recalling the childhood pictures hung inside the beach house that Elle sent her. This not only contradicts her quite sensible reasoning to sell the house in the first place (that it's expensive to maintain, especially since no one is going to live there most of the time now that the kids are off to college), it also undermines the film's message about how growing up means that, sometimes, you have to leave your childhood attachments behind.
• Broken Base:
  • Were the attempts by the movie to address and fix some of the complaints about the previous movies (as detailed above) successful or not? While some viewers noted that the filmmakers at least listened to criticism and tried to fix it, others thought that it was too little, too late and that the damage had already been done.
  • The outcome of Elle's love triangle with Noah and Marco. Some wish she and Noah stayed together, feeling they could've worked through their issues and that it was unsatisfying given the all films up to this point had seen them reiterating how much they meant to each other. Others think Elle should have chosen Marco, as his and Elle's relationship comparatively comes off as far more positive and less fraught with drama than her relationship with Noah. And some are fine with Elle ending up with neither boy, feeling that Elle needed time and space to figure out what she wants without being tied down to a boyfriend and her relationships with both Noah and Marco have serious issues (such as she and Noah constantly butting heads and Marco continuing to pursue Elle despite her making it clear she wanted to be with Noah), or alternatively that Noah and/or Marco deserved better than Elle due to her lack of maturity.
• Contested Sequel: Much like the second film, most people are split as to whether it's better or worse than the previous one. There are some who think that it's the best film in the series (which, considering its reputation, isn't saying much), some that think it's the worst, and some that think it's somewhere in the middle. Some like that it addresses and attempts to resolve many of the issues viewers had with the previous movies, with the characters gaining some maturity and positive development. Others think it just dredges up and repeats the same conflicts from the rest of the trilogy. Viewers who actually liked the idea of Noah and Elle being together were especially frustrated that for all their struggles to make things work this movie sees them breaking up, feeling that it retroactively made a core plot of the trilogy All for Nothing; others think that it's a realistic and bittersweet outcome that makes sense in-universe.
• Humor Dissonance: Elle slapping Tuppen on the behind is treated by both of them and the movie as a funny Call-Back to the first film. The reaction from a lot of audience members was more along the lines of "Lol, remember that time Tuppen sexually assaulted Elle in front of the whole school and nearly beat up Lee for defending her? Wasn't that hilarious?"
• Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: Between Noah and Chloe once again, especially from Noah's end. They're supposed to have a strictly platonic relationship but some viewers were left questioning this; Noah actively seeks Chloe's company several times and overall gets along far better with her than with his actual girlfriend. Heck, Noah even invites Chloe to come live with him at the beach house over the summer without first consulting Elle. He also seems far more understanding and empathetic of Chloe's struggles with her parents' divorce than any of Elle's issues. One could be forgiven for thinking Noah is far more interested in being with Chloe than Elle, especially given he and Elle spend a lot of the film arguing and even break up for good in the last third.
• The Scrappy: Lee was already barely liked by the movie's detractors but the third movie got some fans to dislike him as well due to his clingy, self-centered personality and tendency to emotionally manipulate Elle. While viewers also have issues with Elle and Noah, Lee is despised above all the rest in this movie due to his lack of character development; by this point Noah has matured quite a lot, while Elle's problems are primarily rooted in trying to please others and she at least tries to improve herself. Lee, on the other hand, only seems to care about what he wants and constantly causes the same conflicts in every film; it's really only towards the end of this movie he finally grasps that the world doesn't revolve around him.
• Special Effect Failure: Some of the backgrounds are clearly using green-screen effects, with the scene taking place at the Hollywood sign being especially obvious.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: When Noah is unhappy about Elle hanging around with Marco again over the summer, she is offended and states it seems like a double standard because she is completely fine about him inviting Chloe to stay with them; Noah replies that he never kissed Chloe and is then hostile towards Marco every time they share the screen. Noah is apparently intended to come off as just being jealous and territorial, but the problem is that Elle's "double standard" claims are inaccurate: Chloe and Noah really were just friends and nothing romantic ever happened between them, while not only has Marco made it abundantly clear he's romantically interested in Elle, Elle also cheated on Noah with Marco by kissing him in front of hundreds of people and never apologised for it. Not only are the two situations incomparable, but Noah comes across as perfectly reasonable in not wanting his girlfriend to hang around with Marco.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Lee comes across as a selfish brat in this movie with little empathy for others, though especially in regards to his so-called best friend. While Lee feeling sad about he and Elle not getting to see each other as much anymore and having to say goodbye to his childhood beach house is understandable, many viewers found it hard to feel sympathy because he completely blows it out of proportion. He actively sabotages his parents' attempt to sell the beach house even after they trusted him to stay there over the summer and prepare it for sale. He also constantly demands Elle's attention and throws temper tantrums when she isn't able to cater to his every whim, then has the audacity to accuse her of always caring about Noah more than him despite the fact Elle has spent the entire movie struggling to "make it up" to Lee for daring to go to a different college. While Lee does have a Jerkass Realization near the end and apologizes to Elle for his poor attitude, for lots of viewers it was too little too late, especially seeing as he's been acting the same way for the entire trilogy.
  • Elle isn't as obnoxious as Lee but several viewers still found her annoying and unsympathetic, due to her own poor decision-making causing many of her problems. She frequently hangs around with Marco and even actively seeks him out to be a shoulder to cry on despite what happened between them in the previous movie and Noah's disapproval; even if one argues she was genuinely clueless Marco still has romantic feelings for her, she still comes off insensitive for being so chummy with a boy she cheated on her boyfriend with (one could also argue that in doing so she gives Marco false hope as well). It's understandable she's a bit miffed about Noah inviting Chloe to the beach house without consulting her, but she's in the wrong for claiming that it's the same as her hanging out with Marco and so Noah has no right to be annoyed; it also suggests that Elle still feels insecure and jealous about Noah and Chloe's friendship. Her treatment of her father and his new girlfriend also comes off as childish; dealing with a Parent with New Paramour can be challenging, sure, especially considering her mother died, but Elle almost seems to use Linda as an emotional punching bag rather than dealing with her issues properly - namely talking it out with Noah and Lee instead of being an Extreme Doormat for most of the runtime.
• Wangst: Lee's reaction when Elle announces she plans to go to Harvard instead of Berkeley is made of this (especially keeping in mind he's eighteen and heading for college). He literally runs away nearly in tears and when Elle tries to reason with him, saying they can still talk every day and visit on holidays, he whines that it won't work because he'll be hanging out with his girlfriend during holidays (which makes him a hypocrite given he expects Elle to sacrifice her own relationship to cater to him). And when Elle promises they'll spend all summer having fun together, he retorts that she promised the same thing about "rule nineteen" (that they would always go to the same school); in other words, he's still whining about the friendship rules they made as children after three movies.

---