A mixed bag

Rating: Null/10 (9 October 2011)

"Salt" is about a CIA agent named Evelyn Salt, who seems to have a good, happy life with a nice husband. She's about to go home to her anniversary when a Russian man named Vasilly Orlov, who claims that Salt is actually an undercover Russian spy. Her colleagues, Ted Winters and Peabody, become more than a little suspicious. This is not helped when Evelyn's husband goes missing. She goes running for her life, trying to find her husband and clear her name.
Or is she? I like how the plot is never quite where you think it is going. A lot of critics have complained about how the plot is very predictable. Personally, I have no idea what they are talking about. "Salt" is mostly an old-fashioned action thriller that evokes memories of the Cold War; you're never sure who to trust. I also liked how director Philip Noyce utilized Bourne-esque shaky-cam and rapid editing without making the action incoherent. He knows how to put the techniques to good use. The action is pretty good, but not necessarily adrenaline-pumping. Some of the action set pieces are a little derivative, but I didn't mind. Sometimes the film borrows from "Mission: Impossible," "24," the Bourne movies, "The Matrix Reloaded," and at one point even "Spider-man!" But again, I didn't mind.
What I did mind, though, is Evelyn Salt herself. Angelina Jolie is pretty good in the role (and looks damn fine!), but her character is boring. Evelyn Salt is not given much of a personality and is so blandly written that I never truly cared about or rooted for her. Without a well-developed lead character, I was never truly invested in the story, and as a result the film simply was never as much fun as it should have been. This affects the action as well. As I said before, the action scenes are entertaining, but not exactly spectacular. One of the keys to making a truly exciting action film is making sure the lead character(s) is developed enough to care about. But since I was never interested in Evelyn Salt, the action was merely diverting at best.
Oh, and there's one more thing that got on my nerves (spoiler alert!). There is one character who was not what he/she appeared to be. That twist is a serious eye roller, comes out of nowhere, and is just ridiculous. That was where I finally lost it.
If I sound like I hated this film, I didn't. It manages to be mildly entertaining, but a bland lead character and lame last-minute twist kept me from really enjoying it.
Grade: C+ Rating: 6/10