Friday 17 April 2020

P.S. I Still Love You Movie Review


*this review contains spoilers for the book series To All the Boy's I've Loved Before

If you've been here a while, you know that I love the To All the Boy's I've Loved Before book series. I re-read it all the time, and I absolutely adored the first movie. Clearly, I was very excited for the second movie adaptation, P.S. I Still Love You to come out. Surprisingly, it took me a long time to actually get around to watching it though. The movie came out in February, and then the world almost ended so I only got around to watching it a couple of weeks ago. Again to my surprise, I didn't like the movie much at all. Here's why:

When the To All the Boy's movie came out, the world fell in love with Noah Centineo. Admittedly, I did too. I didn't know much about him, but he brought Peter Kavinsky to life and I just thought he did a fabulous job. But a couple of months later, the hype kinda wore off. He's said some problematic/douchey things, and honestly it's more like a meme now to dislike him. I'm not a fan of his anymore, but I still like how he portrays Kavinsky and didn't expect anything less for P.S. I Still Love You.

That being said, John Ambrose is my ultimate dream guy. I do overall prefer him to Peter, and I was SO EXCITED when Jordan Fisher was cast in the role. However, my excitement wavered when I watched the movie. Don't get me wrong, I thought Jordan did a fabulous job in the role. He's perfect. But, he was given NOTHING TO WORK WITH. John Ambrose was reduced to a kinda flat, one- dimensional character in this storyline. He was given little to no screen time compared to the huge role he has in the book. I wanted more of him. I NEEDED MORE OF HIM. I felt as if John was reduced to a wimpy secondary character. He was paid dust.

I thought the movie was rushed and disorganized. We don't get to see much of Lara Jean's and John Ambrose's blossoming relationship, and even Stormy was not fully developed at all. Instead we got a little bit of Peter being a dick, a little bit of a starlight ball being planned (Idk why they scrapped the USO party), and then Peter and Lara Jean get back together in a happily ever after. In my opinion, even Lara Jean and Peter's love story wasn't fully fleshed out. They had significantly less chemistry than in the previous movie.

I also thought the conflict was poorly handled in this movie. In the book, Peter messes up a lot and is really moody. However here, I thought that Lara Jean was blamed for most of the issues between her and Peter, and he barely apologizes for all the dumb stuff he pulled. Peter has to work hard in the book to gain back Lara Jean's trust, but here it seems like she takes him back like a lovesick puppy, and she is the one who ends up apologizing for everything. What is up with that?

Overall, I was not impressed. Was this a nice, sappy movie with some lovable characters? Yes. But, it did not capture the complexity of the relationships that the book has. The book is a big change since the first one, and I thought that the movie would reflect that. However, all I really saw was a John Ambrose who had so much potential but was given a weak storyline, and a potentially toxic, and too quick to forgive relationship from Peter and Lara Jean. I'm sad to say this, but this movie fell flat for me.

Have you seen P.S. I Still Love You? What did you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess

21 comments:

  1. I'm sorry that this movie was so disappointing for you! I've been hearing a lot that the second movie pinned a lot of blame on Lara Jean unnecessarily. I haven't seen the first To All the Boys movie, but I've been wanting to for a while and I'm bummed to hear that the sequel maybe wasn't as good as the first.

    claire @ clairefy

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    1. Yeah, I think there’s something very problematic about making the girl seem like the villain. Especially with a protagonist as likeable as Lara Jean!

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  2. I'm sorry this turned out to be a disappointment! I mean, this story has so much potential!!!

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  3. I normally don't watch the films first before the book, but I caved in and watched the TATBILB series first on Netflix. Now that I know what happens, I don't know if I want to read the books hahaha :)

    I really loved the first film and thought it was really cute :) Not sure how it compares with the book because I never read it, but the execution seemed really great. I do agree that Kavinsky and Lara Jean's romance in PS I Still Love You wasn't fully fleshed out. Also yes, the conflict wasn't really handled well. I found the conflict somehow petty to me compared to the first film, which is really why I like the first one more.

    Awesome review of the film :) There are many points that you stated which I really agree with.

    jillian @ jillian etc.

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    1. Pretty is a good way to describe it. Relationships are complicated, and I found Lara Jean’s and Peter’s fight in this movie to be so one-sided and stupid. Glad you felt the same way, Jillian!

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  4. Aww, I'm so sorry you didn't enjoy the movie more!!
    I really loved the movie - I thought it was a great continuation from the first movie. I think I enjoyed this movie because I haven't read the book yet - it's on my TBR, I promise!!
    I'll especially be reading this series because I need something to tide me over until the third movie!

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    1. I’m glad you enjoyed it nonetheless! And I do hope that you love the rest of the series as well!

      It’s been good to hear from you, Geraldine!

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  5. I totally agree! This film was so underwhelming, and a wasted opportunity. Fisher was great, but like you say, he had nothing to work with. The script was so weak. At this point I'm just watching for Lana Condor. I also like to pretend the sequel doesn't exist and watch the first movie blissfully ignorant ;)

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    1. I love Lana Condor! I think she is an underrated actress. I hope this sequel hasn’t ruined the first movie for me.

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  6. I'll admit that I didn't read the books, and neither did I watch this movie, because I heard really eh things about it, so I can't comment much on it. But yes, from what I've seen and heard, this would be a disappointment for me as well. (Also, I don't think it's a coincidence that Lara Jean came off worse now that they added a male screenwriter to the already existing female one AND they switched the female director to a male one.) Great post!

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    1. I am so annoyed they switched the director. I thought Susan Johnson did a fabulous job with To All the Boy’s, and I would have liked her to carry the series through. I don’t understand why they took such a female-driven movie series and completely changed it.

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  7. While I am not a fan of the book series or even romance movies in general, I thought this (and its predecessor) was super cute. But I agree that John Ambrose is soooo much cooler and sweeter than Kavinsky. I also did not like how Lara Jean had to apologize at the end? IDK, the movie seemed to just glaze over a lot of the deeper issues rather than address them. Awesome review, Emily!

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    1. Thanks Erin! Glad you felt the same way :) These movies are definitely very easy to get through and super cute, but that doesn’t mean the story should be thrown away like this.

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  8. I've been avoiding watching this movie because the trailers just made it seem lackluster. I absolutely loved the 2nd book and John Ambrose stole my heart in that book, but it seems they did him dirty in this movie. After reading your review I think I'm going to stick by my decision to not watch this movie. Maybe I'll watch the third, but I think it's a no for me on this one.

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    1. Yeah, you’re not missing much to be honest!

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  9. I've heard several times now that this one was kinda disappointing compared to the first one. that's a bummer. This too "John Ambrose was reduced to a kinda flat, one- dimensional character in this storyline". I HATE it when a character is reduced like that in an adaptation. It can wreck the whole story.

    Sorry to hear this wasn't great. I thought the first one was awesome even though I haven't read the book.

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    1. I definitely agree that one character not written well can ruin an entire story. Especially when the character is so beloved like John Ambrose. This movie really got my hopes up for nothing.

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  10. I keep forgetting to watch this one! It's on my watchlist, but the superheroes and Orange Is The New Black keep distracting me! Lol <3

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    1. I have so many things on my list to watch, and I keep forgetting about all of them lol!

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