“Haywire,” an action flick directed by Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven, Contagion), delivers on concise, clean action sequences but stumbles in its sluggish storytelling. Mallory Kane, played by retired Mixed Martial Arts fighter Gina Caradano, is an efficient foot soldier for a company that deals with doing the dirty work for the American government. Kane is sent on a mission where she is double-crossed and is left to fight for her survival, while figuring out why someone would betray her. The action sequences in “Haywire” are entertaining and refreshing to watch. They are lean and Spartan-like, with no explosives, car crashes, or unecessary special effects to evoke excitement and suspense from the audience. The action in “Haywire” relies entirely on hand-to-hand combat which it delivers seamlessly with its ex-MMA lead, Carano. However, Carano’s acting ranged between two faces, glowering and staring, which only goes so far during a 93-minute movie. Plus, there was Carano’s robotic, unaffected voice that never surged in anger or hostility. Granted, that aligned with her “trust no one” character. The movie made a point to make its heroine realistic and human. Soderbergh showed Kane getting bruised and cut, and we see Kane having to stop running after having the wind knocked out of her. Besides the action sequences, I enjoyed the performances from supporting actors Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender and Michael Angarano. One problem with “Haywire” that nagged at me like my mom used to when I was younger, was the choice of music. Soderbergh had a nasty habit of infecting the multiple montage scenes in the movie with Pink Panther-esque music. At one point, when Kane and her team are racing down the stairs to liberate a hostage before the hostage taker returns, random jazz music plays, completely contradicting the action on screen. It was like watching a police car chase with the Barney theme song playing in the background. I suspect Soderbergh chose the jazz detective show music to inject some sense of intrigue into the audience, but it was distracting. The music removed me from the movie, which made watching the other montage scenes as pleasurable as searching for a parking spot on campus. Then there was the problem with the believability of the heroine figure. Carano’s character struggles to find a connection to the audience to make us like her. There is no backstory, no motivation, no reason for the audience to root for the protagonist to continue along her vengeful adventure. There are points in the movie where we can almost identify with Kane, but those moments are squashed before the story arc fully develops. For a girl seeking out revenge, a little burning hate would have been nice to see, or really, any propelling human emotion from Kane’s character. The audience does not know the heroine, and for this reason, the storytelling of “Haywire” fails. Essentially, Soderbergh throws Kane on screen and tells the audience, “Here! Like her! She can fight and she’s pretty! That’s good enough, right?” Sorry Soderbergh, but a pretty girl who can kick butt is simply not good enough for everyone. “Haywire” is rated R and is playing at Cinemark Towne Center.