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“Dogman” mostly sidesteps the limitations of a familiar narrative approach in which the static present-day story serves as a framework to go back into the character’s past.

That tension proves more gripping than “Dogman” itself.

Those missing the shootouts of his “La Femme Nikita” will be happy to know they’ve been awkwardly shoehorned into “Dogman’s” finale, forcing Jones to transform into an unlikely action hero.

Some may relish “Dogman” for that very reason.

Drag queens, disability and dozens of canines converge in Luc Besson’s “DogMan,” which opens with a quotation from a 19th-century French poet and closes with a symbolic crucifixion.