‘Haywire’ a sexy, sweaty mess

"Haywire" looked promising: a take-no-prisoners government operative (Gina Carano, in her feature film debut) systematically takes down the men who betrayed her. Is this plot original? Definitely not. But with a real-life mixed-martial arts fighter leading a star-studded cast, you figure you're going to see something new and exciting.

To "Haywire's" credit, there are some elements that are done well.

It's rare that your action star is actually an action star, let alone one of the top-ranked, 145-pound female fighters in the world. Watching Carano deftly dispatch some of Hollywood's leading men reminds us just how powerful this woman is. However, these excellent fight scenes still can't save "Haywire" from its convoluted plot.

The movie opens with Mallory Kane (Carano), a government agent specializing in covert ops, hiding out in an upstate New York diner. When Aaron (Channing Tatum), a fellow agent, comes to collect her, Mallory calmly tells him she's not going anywhere. Aaron then splashes a cup of coffee in her face, and a brawl ensues. After introducing Aaron's face to a barstool, Mallory recruits a teen named Scott (Michael Angarano) and they speed away in his car.

In one of the movie's many flashback sequences, we learn that Mallory accepted a quick two-day job from her handler Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) after saving a journalist in Barcelona. She goes to Dublin and meets Paul (Michael Fassbender), an MI6 agent who tries to kill her, for reasons that are never really made clear.

"Haywire" is a potentially good movie undone by critical, essential flaws.  

Director Steven Soderbergh ("Ocean's Eleven," "Contagion") and screenwriter Lem Dobbs are so busy trying to make Mallory a badass that they forget to give her a personality. Carano's got charisma in interviews, yet we never get a glimpse of that in the movie. There's no emotion in Mallory's voice; in fact, it's not even her real voice (they deepened it in post-production). Whether or not Mallory's blandness is a fault of Soderbergh or Carano is unclear to the audience.

If your main character is female, try to make her at least somewhat feminine. Soderbergh should be admired for not making Mallory the sex symbol a lot of action heroines are (Lara Croft, anyone?), but one of the highlights of the movie was Mallory engaging Paul in a fist fight, all while wearing an evening gown. If your hero is unconventional, why not play up those differences?

Ultimately, "Haywire" is an apt title for the movie: Who's working for whom?

The question remains unanswered, as the film devolves into ambiguity and confusion.