Salt (DVD Screening)

(Spoiler free)

Salt was a film that when it was released in 2010 that I did want to see, however I missed its run in the cinema and simply haven’t managed to see it until now. I remember hearing very mixed reports about this film, but if I remember correctly most of the responses were negative.  Angelina Jolie is very hit and miss in my opinion when it comes to her movies and I am by no means her biggest fan although in Salt she did impress me.

Salt is a really solid action movie, it has all the elements a good action movie needs. The plot is good, it is one of those that you can follow (just about), it keeps you in the dark just the right amount that it allows you to make your own judgements and still leaves plenty of room for twists and turns.  In between all of this comes several really quite impressive action sequences, these came thick and fast and there was rarely a moment of calm in this movie, just what an action movie should be! I often worry that female leads in action movies don’t work as well, they have so much to compete with in terms of a male action lead.  Despite this Jolie was actually fantastic as the lead here, she was so badass! Her best scenes were most definitely her hand to hand combat, she impressed here and easily held her own against the male action leads, much like in Mr and Mrs Smith.  Now all I want to see is Angelina Jolie versus Liam Neeson, Taken 3 anyone!?

Salt easily held my attention throughout maybe apart from about 3/4 of the way through where despite the presence of action it somehow did lack pace and the whole movie did slow down, however this is quickly combated with the finale in the White House, which was great! Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor also performed well in their respective roles and complemented Jolie’s performance nicely. I am surprised at the amount of criticism that Salt received as it really was a good action movie, it almost verges into the thriller category but not quite.  Salt is the upmarket action movie that should silence any of the action movie snobs who don’t know how to have fun.  It is more sophisticated than the likes of a Jason Statham action flick and should receive more praise than it got.

BIGGEST FLAW – Lack of pace around 3/4 in

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT – Jolie’s strong performance as a lead action star

Rating – 9/10