Gunpowder Milkshake

What if John Wick was a woman? What if Kill Bill never existed? That’s about the extent of the inspiration behind Gunpowder Milkshake, which is content to imitate genre predecessors rather than break new ground.

This familiar ultraviolent crime thriller about betrayal and vigilante revenge includes an added layer of feminist empowerment. Yet it also overwhelms a talented ensemble cast with ostentatious visual flourishes.

With style and attitude to spare, the film immerses us in the dark underbelly of a neon-infused urban landscape through the story of Sam (Karen Gillan), a ruthless assassin working for a shady male-dominated syndicate known as the Firm.

One of her assignments brings her into contact with Emily (Chloe Coleman), a precocious 8-year-old whose father was a victim of gangster violence. She becomes a surrogate mother of sorts to the resourceful orphan, like she wishes her own mother, Scarlet (Lena Headey) had been for her. Scarlet, though, abandoned Sam years earlier to prioritize her job.

Meanwhile, her liaison at the Firm (Paul Giamatti) informs Sam she’s being let go, which prompts her to go rogue and revisit her roots in the business — three “librarians” (charismatically played by Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, and Carla Gugino) whose volumes of classic literature conceal high-tech weaponry beneath their covers.

It’s a visually striking English language debut for Israeli director Navot Papushado (Big Bad Wolves), whose effort to inject new blood into well-worn material is more noteworthy for ambition than execution.

The fight sequences are creatively choreographed, such as an early highlight in which Sam roughs up three goons in a bowling alley, and again moments later in the narrow corridor of a medical building.

However, the shallow screenplay doesn’t conjure much mystery or suspense to fill the gaps. The two resilient heroines develop an appealing chemistry, but the film stumbles when aiming for moral complexity or emotional depth. As it evolves into a de-facto battle of the sexes — women good, men bad — the collection of non-descript, over-the-top villains fails to raise the stakes.

Gunpowder Milkshake has all the earmarks of an intended franchise starter, in which case any subsequent installments need to supplement the mayhem and spectacle with more imagination and substance.

Rated R, 114 minutes.