Nice action, but the plot is old news

Rating: 6/10 (11 February 2011)

While both my wife and I eagerly look forward to every Jolie movie, and we both thoroughly enjoyed Salt, I couldn't help feeling that we needed some Tequila and Lime as well.
It's not a bad movie as such. It's got a lot going for it, great acting, amazing action scenes, and as usual, Jolie pulls off sexy badass just by existing. But the story was a strange sort of blend between the Manchurian Candidate and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The Russians apparently, back during the cold war, placed a number of specially trained children into American life as sleeper agents that would one day rise up, seize control of the American Nuclear Arsenal and... nuke it? Spark a war? I'm a little fuzzy about what the Endgame is really supposed to be, but apparently so is Evelyn Salt, since after her cover is blown and she is brought into the fold with her sleeper agent counterparts, they kill her none-the-wiser husband and she goes ballistic. Using her skills, she goes rogue and infiltrates her own infiltration program in order to kill everyone involved with it. She even jumps out of a helicopter at the end.
Again, despite the odd, cliché' ridden plot and the stretched believability of Russians starting anything more than an impolite dinner conversation these days, Salt is a fun movie.
As always, Jolie makes the character real. I heard the movie and the part was originally written for a male character, but they changed it to cast Jolie in the role. Probably because while straight women would have been drawn to a male lead, they needed Jolie to bring in the straight women AND the action-movie male crowd.
I would place this movie on the level of a Die Hard sequel. While the action is great, the tension is real, and the acting is perfect, the movie does have its flaws. It's still an enjoyable ride and if you're a fan of the Jolie-appeal, you should definitely check it out.
(P.S. When will bad guys learn not to kill helpless spouses? It never works in their favor.)