I would imagine that the studio heads wanted another Bourne for the summer, a huge chunk of action packed and stunt laden escapism with a heavy hitting star in place who could carry the movie written for Tom Cruise….and here comes the twist, make it a female agent! Wow, they really put some thought into these things huh? Once that decision was taken Jolie’s name would be first on that list, she brought the game character Lara Croft to life in spades so this would seem a no-brainer….would the film also prove thus?

Whilst the cast was pretty anonymous to me, knowing only Liev Schreiber apart from Jolie, they had for the most part only fleeting screen time and therefore hardly of consequence, which says something about the character building and any attention to their motivation as portrayed in between the action scenes

The tale starts with Jolie’s character Evelyn Salt having to debrief a Russian defector, which turns into her very own nightmare as she is singled out as one of a number of highly trained ‘sleepers’ or moles who are programmed to instigate acts against the USA on command. Salt goes on the run, attempting top pit her wits (I said wits) against both the US covert forces, and the Russians who are written in as the usual merciless bad asses. The resulting action sequences are well scripted but totally overdone, with manic leaping between wagons etc from an admittedly fit but still human spy. There are also the questionable disguises donned by our heroine during the various scenes where she infiltrates secure environments….I actually giggled once as I was reminded of Peter Sellers in the ‘Pink Panther’ series of movies. Still the movie fair zips along between explosions and stunts, and Jolie makes it very clear with her ninja-like prowess that she is not to be taken lightly.

6.5/10 Not the greatest of action films, but certainly not as bad as I had feared, the lack of character building leaves the viewer cold about the fates of those dispatched by Salt, and largely unimpressed by the antics of the secret service stooges. Jolie may be an all action lead but even her star quality just about carries this off, whilst I think a lesser figure would have failed. Jason Bourne certainly has no fear for his crown just yet.