If director Steven Soderbergh is to be believed, he’ll be retiring from his filmmaking career after three more films, and audiences will certainly notice the loss of one of America’s most diverse and ambitious cinematic minds.

From helming the blockbuster “Ocean’s Eleven” series to the recent virus outbreak drama “Contagion,” not to mention his breakout independent success with 1989’s “Sex, Lies and Videotape,” the 49-year-old Soderbergh has built up the resume of a filmmaker many years older.

With “Haywire,” Soderbergh delves into the action genre in a way that adds to the sort of thrills that snuck their way into the “Ocean’s” movies, but surpasses the tired machismo cliché of a Schwarzenegger or Stallone-style action film. Starring the female mixed-martial artist Gina Carano, “Haywire” is a welcome dose of action movie theatrics from the prolific director, but Soderbergh’s idea of an action film is a ’70s crime movie with fight scenes.

The story is familiar one: a black-ops super soldier named Mallory (Carano) is set up in what seems like a routine rescue mission in collaboration with the U.S. government. But what Mallory doesn’t know is that somebody has it out for her and is using top government resources to make sure she won’t be kicking and punching much longer.

With a script by previous Soderbergh collaborator Lem Dobbs, who’s penned the underrated “The Limey” and co-wrote Alex Proya’s “Dark City,” what begins as a rote genre exercise quickly becomes so much more. While most action films are content to barrage their audience with a series of impossible stunts and superhuman strength — think the most recent “Die Hard” installment — Soderbergh brings “Haywire” down to a human level that’s both engaging and relatable.

In an age where it’s perfectly acceptable for humans to be flung around by gigantic robots without dying in “Transformers” or survive a multiple-story fall in nearly any action film, “Haywire” returns to a level of realism sorely missing from the genre. When Mallory takes a hit, she hurts.

While Carano brings her all to the physically demanding role of Mallory, she also has acting chops, and Soderbergh explores her newfound acting prowess throughout the film’s 93-minute running time. Sharing the screen with well-respected talent such as  Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas and Ewan McGregor, you’d be shocked to find out Carano’s last film was a poorly received, straight-to-DVD underground fighting film called “Blood and Bone.”

As always, Soderbergh doesn’t just stop with names like Douglas and Banderas as he fills out his cast — the talented Michael Fassbender finds his way into the film as a fellow agent, and both Channing Tatum and “Almost Famous” star Michael Angarano provide stone-faced action and laughter.

Angarano’s character, who is kidnapped by Mallory at the beginning of the film, takes a ride with the audience as Mallory explains to him how she was set up in a series of flashbacks.

These flashbacks make up the majority of how “Haywire” is told — amidst all the visceral action thrills packed tightly into the film, Soderbergh uses the clichéd storytelling device of flashbacks and makes it work. A rare feat, as the last time flashbacks really seemed to work in a film was Christopher Nolan’s “Memento.” But even then, Nolan took some major creative liberties with it.

It also goes without saying that anyone watching “Haywire” will be tapping their feet along to the score by David Holmes, who also provided the memorable scores for 2008’s “Hunger” and Soderbergh’s own “Ocean’s” movies. The music hearkens back to ’70s-era funk sounds like Roy Ayer’s score for “Coffy,” Curtis Mayfield’ “Superfly” or anything Mikis Theodorakis did for “Serpico,” only with a 21st-century sheen.

There’s plenty of praise to heap upon “Haywire,” but the credit mostly goes to Soderbergh for the film’s success. As the filmmaker continually proves himself to be a distinguished auteur, even his actors sniff out projects he’s involved with, as recent Golden Globe nominee Fassbender told film blog The Playlist.

“The opportunity to work with him was too good a chance to let slip,” he said. “I thought it was an interesting world, an interesting character to play. I thought there was enough on the page but it wasn’t over-written and didn’t sort of bog me down with too much information, so there was enough blank space for me to fill in and get creative with it. But mainly Steven Soderbergh.”

Fortunately, the proof is in the film with this one, as “Haywire” proves that the director’s ambitious nature is not beyond his reach. “Haywire,” which has been unfairly delegated to the desolate January cinema landscape, brings all the high-caliber acting, composing and, in this case, fighting that we’ve come to expect from this beloved director.