Saying Goodbye to Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky (To All The Boys: Always and Forever)

Three years ago, To All The Boys I've Loved Before was one the first few Netflix Original films that were rom-com oriented and it also set a donimo effect of constant rom-com stories based on high school students. Unlike the others, the To All The Boys debut film was a worldwide success making Lana Condor and Noah Centineo into household names, the same way the John Hughes made Molly Ringwald famous. 

The iconic film is based on the trilogy of books written by Jenny Han and as of today, Netflix has adapted all three books into a trilogy of movies that will be beloved by all sappy teenagers during this Valentine time. The first sequel adaptation was released last year, a month before lockdown and were to excited to wait another year for the next one. Finally, it has arrived officially ending an era.

To recap; the film trilogy centers around Lara Jean Covey, a Korean girl who lives with her widow dad and two sisters, Margot (eldest) and Kitty (youngest). We learn by the beginning of the film that Lara Jean has a crush on Margot's boyfriend, Josh and writes love letters to all the crushes she has ever had which includes Josh. One day, her letters are all sent and all hell breaks loose. Or does it? Eventually she ends up with Peter Kavinsky. 

By the second film, Peter and Lara Jean are happy together until John Ambrose returns home and unintentionally wedges a rift between the happy couple by getting Lara Jean to remember that she liked John Ambrose more amongst all the other guys she had ever written love letters to. Fortunately by the end of the film, Lara Jean finally makes up her mind and ends up once again with Peter. 

Now, we are at the end of the trilogy and it's graduation. Peter is heading to Stanford for a football scholarship and Lara Jean plans to follow him until she doesn't get accepted. The film decides to put an all new rival towards the cringey, sweet couple and this time, its not another guy but troubles of what the future holds. Unlike the kind of shows or movies I watch, this trilogy has no loose ends to tie up in a long form storytelling way but it just pays tribute to the books. 

I did read the books way back when the first movie came out and I just realized that I barely remembered anything until the last minute. Either way, the third movie was not as iconic as the first. Neither was the second but you would have guessed it wouldn't be as iconic after how it was positively received. Sadly, the third film doesn't provide anything new except provides closure towards these what might become memorable characters that will live on as Netflix classics. 

The music is the only highlight of the films where I am constantly guessing at who is singing what. I was happy they included a remix version of Lauv's "I Like Me Better" and features Ashe's new song after the success of "Moral of the Story" after the previous movie. The song from the trailer was unfortunately not included in the final film (Betty Who's cover of I Love You, Always Forever) and the song that becomes Lara Jean and Peter's song, was although good but just gave a 'meh' feeling. 

The To All The Boys trilogy definitely shows you whatever happens after Happily Ever After but still not realistic enough but fun enough to give youngsters teenage fantasies about love that are just meant to be fantasized and nowhere else further.