Everybody loves Angelina Jolie, that’s just a fact. However, her films? Not so much. She has had an era of good performances as many different remarkable characters. However, every once in a while, she opts into doing films that are mediocre and bad, that’s something she does consistently too.
She’s either going to be in a really good film, playing a really popular character, or you are going to find her in horrible movies such as Wanted or The Tourist. The real show stopper from her rampage in the 2010s was Salt, a film that managed to be better when compared to the rest of her work at that time, yet nothing exceptional on its own merit.
How to Stream or Download Salt
You can stream it or you can download Salt from a digital store. Click on the Download button at the end of this review. If you like Angelina Jolie, check her out also in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), and Eternals (2021).
The Movie Review
The story follows Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent whose life gets completely turned over her head when she is falsely accused of planning the assassination of the Russian President. She’s also accused to be an infamous Russian Sleeper Agent known as the ‘KA-12’, who will kill the Russian President and destroy USA from within.
The film closely follows Evelyn as she fights her way through many different forces both within and outside her organization, she battles to survive and prove her innocence in a world that is completely against her at every single step of the way.
The man behind The Saint and The Bone Collector, Philip Noyce directs the film himself. Honestly, I must say that the film has quite a clear direction and some really decent pacing. It flows perfectly, going from sequence to sequence, and events are showcased two perfection. However, the direction really comes at crossroads with the writing when it comes to the characters and their development.
The characters’ decisions and their movements, just don’t really mesh well when combined with their dialogue and their personalities. Their words and monologues basically mean nothing in the context of the film because they say them and later forget, doing actions that are contradicting their own words.
The film had a pretty big budget, and that really shows during the film’s magnanimous action sequences. These are shot and filmed to perfection, I’m guessing they had some really good storyboards when going into it.
The action is crunchy, the hits sound heavy and dense, as well as the gunfire his constant. Not to mention, there is always a looming threat of a stunt coming in out of nowhere, you have car chases, bike chases, and gunfights, as well as martial arts battles that are just insanely fun to watch. Say what you want about this movie’s characters, the action here is quite impeccable.
Do you know what else is impeccable? Angelina Jolie. She plays the role of Evelyn salt with such grace, that you can actually feel the tension and distress that the character is going through. Although she doesn’t show it, Evelyn is quite an emotional character.
She is definitely one of the most well trained CIA agents, yet she is also struggling with her own self, and her identity as the only person in her life who she cares about is her husband.
The cinematography, on the other hand, I feel could do much better. The film is quite colorless when it comes to its color palette, often featuring the same Blues and Grays that get quite repetitive after a while. I like the camera work in the action sequences a lot, however when it comes to the static shots and somber moments in the film, the camera work just doesn’t match up to par.
The Bottom Line
In summary, Salt is a film with a ton of potential, yet little artistic vision to back it up. I like Salt because it has some amazing action choreography design, a really unique and fun take on the classic rogue spy genre, and a main protagonist who is easily lovable.
Evelyn is by far the best aspect of this movie, from her action sequences, to her dialogue, Angelina Jolie’s acting and the direction of Philip Noyce makes everything seem like perfection. If only the film had a bit more artistic merit and a little more uniqueness in its character development, we could have had something really great.