Salt | Review
“OMG!” “WTF!?” “Holy sh*t!” Those are just some of my many reactions to ‘Salt’ while I was watching it. ‘Salt’ is a surprisingly well-made, enthralling, thriller of a movie. The film has so many good twists and turns, it’s hard not to be excited about anything that happens in the film.
I suggest to anyone who plans on seeing ‘Salt’ to throw away any knowledge they thought they knew about the film before seeing it. If you think you know everything about ‘Salt’ from the trailers and commercials and whatnot, think again. From the trailers, we’re told that the main character, Evelyn Salt, is a CIA agent whom, during the questioning of a Russian spy in CIA headquarters, is accused of being a Russian “sleeper agent” or “mole.” Now she’s on the run from the government while trying to clear her name as well as find her husband. That’s the basic premise that we’re given from the film’s marketing campaign. Man, the film’s marketing campaign did a very awesome job. The plot from the trailers, which I just explained, was really interesting, and good enough to get a lot of people to go see the film. However, the genius part is whenever these people actually go and view the film- ‘Salt’ delivers exactly what everyone expects from it… but in its first 20 to 30 minutes. The majority of the film, the 70 minutes after that, is what ‘Salt’ is truly about.
The majority of the film is amazing simply because you never know what’s going to happen. The parts about Evelyn Salt being framed as a Russian sleeper agent, on the run from the government, trying to clear her name and find her husband, are practically all thrown away after the first 20 to 30 minutes – they’re no longer important. During the duration of the film, we continuously run into a multitude of plot twists, and each one leads the main character onto her next destination. All of these plot twists are amazing and shocking in the right way; they’re not badly thought-out twists. Each twist makes us ask a new question, most of which are never really answered by the end of the film.
The action sequences in ‘Salt’ are also smart and well done. The film isn’t a typical action film – it’s more interesting and more fascinating. The writers for ‘Salt’ have written and co-written many, many action films before (‘The Bourne Supremacy’ and ‘Man on Fire’). However, the only one I’ve actually seen from one of the writers is ‘Law Abiding Citizen’, written by ‘Salt’ co-writer Kurt Wimmer.
Like ‘Law Abiding Citizen’, ‘Salt’ kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Both films are fast-paced and nail-biters, and both change up the action genre. The most important thing that ‘Law Abiding Citizen’ and ‘Salt’ both have in common is the fact that both of the films’ plots are ridiculous and unbelievable, ‘Law Abiding Citizen’ more than ‘Salt.’ However, an action movie, or any movie for that matter, doesn’t have to be realistic to be really good. ‘Salt’ has amazing action sequences that seem outrageous and unbelievable, which doesn’t take away from the film at all.
There are only two things that I have to complain about ‘Salt.’ The film has some cliched dialogue scattered throughout, though not much, thankfully. Trust me, you’ll know which lines I’m talking about if you see the film – they’re the ones that just don’t match the tone of the film. Another complaint would have to be against the film’s character development. There’s not much of that. However, the film doesn’t necessarily need one. ‘Salt’ has a super-fast pace, thus there wasn’t really much room for character development. Also, Angelina Jolie’s character doesn’t say much in the majority of the film. Jolie mostly just blows things up, snoop around, and runs around the city and inside buildings without saying a single word. Again, the missing character development portion of ‘Salt’ wasn’t truly needed, but it wouldn’t have hurt to have some in it.
‘Salt’ is the second film in a row that I’ve loved, and it’s the second film in a row I’ve seen that is practically original; ‘Inception’ was the other film. ‘Salt’ is perhaps the second-best action/thriller film this summer, after ‘Inception’ of course. It’s captivating. It’s thrilling. It’s a nail-biter. ‘Salt’ has enough twists, turns, “WTF” moments, flashbacks, and so much more to keep you entertain throughout. Just make sure you keep the film’s tagline in your head while you watch ‘Salt’: “You think everyone is who they say they are?” The tagline tells you so much more than you know. Trust me.
***Update: Originally I gave ‘Salt’ a perfect score of 4 out of 4 stars. However, looking back at it, the film doesn’t really deserve a perfect score. I still believe the film was good and entertaining, but I think I got too caught up in the excitement and thrill of it, which caused me to over-rate it. Even though ‘Salt’ is an exciting and thrilling film, it’s still as generic as any other summer action flick. Though I said it offered something slightly new and different, which it did for me, it’s still not worthy of a perfect score. Basically, the energy of the film made it seem super good and perfect-score worthy, but after a few days of thinking on it, it’s still generic.