A smorgasbord of characters, fight sequences, sci-fi myth-making and Nicolas Cage, Jiu Jitsu is overstuffed -- just not in a good way. The story is a bizarre martial-arts extravaganza/Predator mash-up where it seems the filmmakers never thought of an idea they didn't include, making for a mess of a movie. Of course, sometimes when a film pushes to such ridiculous extremes, it can be a delightful guilty pleasure. Unfortunately Jiu Jitsu is not one of those films.
The movie centers on Jake (Alain Moussi), a member of an order of jiu-jitsu masters located in Myanmar. Jake knows none of this, though, because in the opening minutes of the film he jumps off a cliff into the sea and bangs his head on a rock. He’s fished out of the water and patched up by a local woman but suffers from severe amnesia for the remainder of the film. The woman drops Jake off at the local US Army base where it becomes clear Jake doesn’t have a clue what’s going on, yet has perfectly retained his ability to fight.
Jake is soon sprung from custody by one of his comrades, Keung (Tony Jaa), who reunites him with more members of his team (including characters played by Frank Grillo -- spending most of his time denying Jake's amnesia -- and Juju Chan) for whom time is of the essence. You see, an alien named Brax is in town and if he doesn’t fight nine so-called jiu-jitsu masters by that night, he’ll kill everyone. Who knows who everyone consists of -- the people in the local village? in the country? in the world? -- but it sounds ominous, so Jake and his allies are there to take on Brax, and if necessary, die in the process, despite Jake's amnesia. The group goes to meet the alien, splitting up to confront him one by one, and of course, keep the action going. You can pretty much guess how things unfold from there -- lots of combat, complete with Jake rising to the occasion.
Yet no description of the plot can encompass the experience of watching Jiu Jitsu, which is filled with odd filmmaking choices. From its opening moments, the movie uses title cards drawn like comic book pages to delineate the story's different chapters. This along with the animation in the credit sequence might make you wonder if the movie is based on a comic book. It’s not, but the inclusion of comic-book art is as random as many of the film's other stylistic choices. When anyone speaks Burmese, it’s accompanied by multi-colored subtitles that also use bold, italic and all caps for emphasis in a way that doesn’t seem to match how the actors are delivering their lines.
Then there’s the camera work and editing. The first fight sequence featuring Jaa, an impressive martial artist, is so riddled with slow motion, it removes any kinetic excitement. Then, when Jake escapes from the army, the camera is used to show the action from his perspective, first-person-shooter style. But this means instead of being able to see Moussi, another accomplished fighter, in action, the only thing onscreen is bodies being thrown around. This becomes more perplexing when Jake enters the frame and then leaves it, shifting the camera from first to third-person and back. Then there’s a sequence where the army's ambushed where the camera is trained close on the actors’ faces as they run and freak out; it looks so strange that the shot choice is more disconcerting than whatever’s attacking the characters.
Even when the fight sequences are shot more conventionally the fighters aren't framed well and the shots focus too heavily on the extras whose sole purpose is to be taken down. Moreover, for a movie named for a specific martial art, there’s surprisingly little of what’s currently thought of as jiu jitsu in it. Rigan Machado, whose surname will be familiar to those who know Brazilian jiu jitsu, shows up briefly to grapple with Brax. Otherwise, it seems the movie uses jiu jitsu in the Japanese sense as a catch-all term for martial arts.
Meanwhile, although the story takes its cues from Predator, its alien is far less scary. Just like the Predator, Brax is often invisible and sees the world through a heads up display. Yet when he is revealed, his look is utterly underwhelming, consisting of nothing more than a black bodysuit and a glass bubble head that periodically creates facial expressions, making him look like Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Still, if you’re like me, what you really came for is Nicolas Cage. And I’m happy to report that he doesn’t disappoint. Jiu Jitsu features Cage at his zany best. And while his part is undoubtedly cheesy, he fully commits -- even when he's showing off the newspaper hat his character made. The movie is more interesting every time Cage is onscreen. Unfortunately, that isn’t very long. Outside of a brief nonspeaking early appearance, Cage doesn’t show up until 40 minutes into the film, and his total onscreen time is fairly brief, including an extended fight sequence that was probably largely done by his stunt double.
Outside of Cage there isn’t a whole lot to recommend Jiu Jitsu. It would be easier to overlook the subpar story if the fights were better filmed. It’s a shame to assemble such an impressive group of martial arts experts and not showcase them to the fullest. So while the movie starts out with some promise for dopey fun, it ultimately devolves into a tedious slog that even its silly dialogue can't leaven.
Directed by Dimitri Logothetis, Jiu Jitsu stars Nicolas Cage, Marie Avgeropoulos, Frank Grillo, Tony Jaa, Marrese Crump and Juju Chan. The film arrives in theaters and on video on demand Friday, Nov. 20.