“Battle: Los Angeles” is not recommended for those with epilepsy. Or anyone else, for that matter.

The story is like that of 100 different action movies: Hordes of alien invaders bombard the world’s major cities, and some guy with a cleft chin and Army fatigues is humanity’s last hope.

Where this film falls flat, though, is not the plot. Action movies seem to have the unique ability to copy each other and still put out a product worth watching. “Battle: Los Angeles” even puts a different spin on the hostile alien genre, placing the characters in the middle of an urban war. This setting will be familiar to fans of “Black Hawk Down,” only this is in an American city.

The first few minutes seem promising enough &- grainy news footage from the front lines feels like video coming out of Libya or Bahrain.

From here on out, though, the execution is embarrassing. Aaron Eckhart, of “Dark Knight” fame, makes a heroic attempt to save some really terrible, corny dialogue. It is hard not to roll one’s eyes when he is kneeling down in front of a little kid calling him “my little Marine.”

The urban warfare aspect was completely mishandled. Fast cuts and confusing flashes have their place in explosion movies, but the makers of “Battle: Los Angeles” went way overboard. The camera moves so fast during battle sequences that it is impossible for the viewer to understand where the heroes are in relation to the enemy. It is easy to lose track of the number of close-up shots of people screaming something unintelligible.

The alien design is just lazy. They are humanoid and completely featureless, with a smooth face and simple, smooth body. They make the same canned alien clicking noise extra-terrestrials have been making in Hollywood since time immemorial. And, what do you know? There is a secret to killing them.

They are also stupid. One might think, having traveled across galaxies to attack Earth, these things would be at least as smart as humans. But they are often seen just standing out in the middle of the battlefield, seemingly waiting to be pumped full of lead. This is inexcusable, and really hurts the believability of the movie as a whole.

The design of the alien ships is just silly. They don’t look anything like an aircraft, but are instead a jumbled mess of pipes and angular shards of metal. Clearly, the emphasis was on looking badass rather than functional.

“Battle: Los Angeles” feels like a good idea that was made way too fast to pay any attention to detail. What could have been a gritty, almost realistic fight against an otherworldly foe turned into just another thrown-together mess. The producers must have broken the bank on pyrotechnics and hired chimps to write the script. Bananas are cheap, but vision takes time and money.

Alex Grotewohlcan be reached at [email protected]