Extremely predictable

Rating: 3/10 (23 August 2011)

I usually enjoy action flicks a lot, and I love spy-movies, even the more pathetic and overdrawn ones like the James Bond series. So well, I thought Salt was right up my alley.
First off: The movie is a highly polished AAA title with all that comes with it. Family friendly dialogue (no swearing), practically no gore (some blood here and there), no sexual content. So far, so good. Unfortunately, this general direction was kept when it comes to plot quality - Side-characters are stereotypes, scenery and sets are cliché overkill, the obligatory love story doesn't get you attached at all. Depth? - Nada.
***Spoilers***
While this would all be excusable in an action-packed popcorn-movie with guns, agents and inter-truck-jumps, one thing is not: Salt obviously wants you to keep guessing which side the protagonist is on, since the movie is built around the double agent idea of sleeper agents with waterproof cover living in the US for practically their entire life.
Well, the movie fails gloriously at this. Evelyn Salt doesn't kill a single US-American in the whole movie. Ever. Moreover, she knocks US citizens out, at great risk and in grotesque ways, just to spare their lives. So it's crystal clear right off the bat that she is in some way or the other, working for the US. And it stays that way until the end. The rest of the plot (which is a whooping 60 minutes long) unfolds exactly as you'd expect. The guy that wanted her dead is actually the good guy; Her best friend is actually *drums*, the bad guy. Why she did it? - Love, of course. It's an American movie after all.
Overall far below other action/spy AAA thrillers like the Bourne series or Bond and eons behind really good spy movies like "Body of Lies" (which actually provides questions instead of a bucket-load of answers you never wanted to hear, like Salt).