A fast-paced, well-timed thriller where Angelina Jolie shows us yet again why she's Hollywood's go-to action girl.
- Who's going to like it: Action fans, Jolie fans, and people just looking for a good thriller.
Who is Evelyn Salt? She’s an
indestructible super-spy who bounces off the tops of semi-trucks, takes on
armies of government agents, and can scale buildings in her bare feet. Salt
is a tightly packed thriller which twists and turns through a world of espionage
and intrigue. Actually the espionage and intrigue is just a cover for producing
a steady stream of high-flying action sequences that don’t stop after five
minutes in.
To try and explain any part
of Salt’s plot is a fool’s errand. The plot is complicated, but not something
that can’t be followed. It’s there as a way to service the stunts. It’s easy
enough to follow, and interesting enough to keep you riveted. What you need to
know is Evelyn Salt works for the CIA. A Russian informant comes in, and
fingers her as a Russian spy. Then it’s off to the races.
Angelina Jolie plays Evelyn
Salt, again embodying a role tailor made for her. Jolie has cemented herself in
a realm where females lightly tread: the action star. There’s rarely a time
during ‘Salt’s brisk 100 minute runtime where Jolie isn’t kicking someone,
punching someone, shooting someone, or blowing someone up. The frantic pace of
the action is well-timed by director Phillip Noyce, giving Salt a feeling
where it’s hard to catch your breath while watching it.
After watching a movie like Inception that requires your brain to work overtime, Salt could be referred
to as the anti-Inception. Just sit back, relax, and go on a thrill-filled
ride with Jolie as she punches and kicks her way to the truth.
Salt does employ the
standard modern day action filming technique where fight scenes are edited with
a rapid succession of quick cuts, thankfully though, the shaky-cam stays away
for the most part. The action in Salt isn’t as inventive as Joseph
Gordon-Levitt taking out bad guys in zero gravity like in ‘Inception,’ but it
never feels mundane either.
The pace of Salt is
something that makes 100 minutes fly by as each scene moves Salt closer and
closer to finding out the truth. Sure there are twists in the plot, we’ve come
to expect that from our thrillers nowadays, but Salt’s are somewhat creative
and the only thing that’s predictable about them is the fact you know they’re
coming sooner or later. Finally, a thriller with a super-twist at the end that
actually makes sense. It’s thrown from left-field, but it’s believable.
In the end Salt is a lot
of fun. Jolie is
(4 out of 5)
| Comments
