The To All The Boys I've Loved Before movies reign supreme.
Focusing on Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor) and the love letters she wrote for her crushes which were sent out without her consent, the original To All The Boys I've Loved Before film followed her fake relationship with Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo). The sequel, The Kissing Booth 3 forced all three of them to grow up on their own.
While the trilogies have very different premises, they share a lot of storytelling themes, particularly in of coming-of-age and rom-com tropes. No wonder they're often matched up against each other. With both film series finished, it's clear that the To All The Boys franchise is more well-received. While its first movie is still largely considered the best, the sequels hold up pretty well compared to The Kissing Booth which got significantly worse over time. One of the main advantages of the To All The Boys series from its competitor is its characters. Despite Lara Jean and Peter making some catastrophic mistakes along the way, both of them are genuinely good and well-rounded people. They learn from their errors which makes them more relatable and easier to root for. Meanwhile, The Kissing Booth cast of characters barely had any personal growth. The Kissing Booth 3 feels like a redundancy because almost every single issue they tackled was a variation of their previous issues in The Kissing Booth 2. The six-year time jump at the end was meant to show Elle, Noah, and Lee all grown up, but it felt rushed and unearned because the film didn't show the part where they actually mature.
There are also lesser storytelling issues in the To All The Boys series. The Kissing Booth is full of questionable, and sometimes even downright problematic behavior from its players. Lee tries to control Elle and becomes overly possessive when he learns that she's dating Noah. Once he gets over that in the first film, he deals with the same thing in The Kissing Booth 3 when Elle chooses to go to Harvard rather than U.C. Berkeley which was their initial plan. Elle, on the other hand, has no agency; her goal is only to please the people in her life, especially her best friend and her boyfriend. Expectedly, she burns out and takes it out on her dad instead. Lest it's forgotten, as well, that the mere idea of a kissing booth also posed a few more issues — and it's barely even a factor in The Kissing Booth 3. At least To All The Boys was able to incorporate Lara Jean's penchant for writing love letters until Always and Forever.
In the end, the To All The Boys I've Loved Before franchise is better in of handling its core issues and themes. While it has had its fair share of issues, it delivers on what it's meant to do which is to come up with a cheesy and feel-good story about two young adults figuring their collective and separate lives. Meanwhile, The Kissing Booth trilogy, at times, takes its self too seriously; the characters go through the same issues without learning anything, while their problems are blown way out of proportion.
