With a title like “Tears of the Sun,” one may be pleasantly surprised that the movie itself isn’t as bad as its title. This isn’t to say this is a good movie. “Tears of the Sun” is fine when it stays within the boundaries of its genre — a war film — but when it seeps through the cracks of preachy action movie, touching drama or romance, things get farfetched.

Navy SEAL Lt. A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis) leads his squad into the jungles of Nigeria to evacuate the very attractive Dr. Lena Kendricks (Monica Bellucci), a physician at a Catholic mission in an isolated village. When the going tough gets, Dr. Attractive refuses to leave without the villagers, who wish to seek political asylum from violent conflict with opposition of the new democratic government of their country.

Waters and his men witness the viciousness of the rebel army and are convinced to risk their lives to help Dr. Kendricks, thereby deciding to escort 20-some villagers to the nearby border of Cameroon, leaving them open to even more danger of a fast-moving rebel army. The group at large is at peril’s claw, due to one of the members being a remaining family member of the previous political family, a person the rebels have been ordered to kill.

The essential plot of “Tears of the Sun” is problematic and absurd. Willis plays a seasoned veteran supposedly immune to the horrors of conflict, therefore making it all the more implausible that he would fall victim to the overacted pleas of Dr. Kendricks. But this is of no matter, because the doctor is good-looking.

The film has no character development other than basic beliefs and attitudes we come to learn about each of them. Other than Willis, Bellucci or Tom Skerritt, each actor is relatively faceless and unrecognizable — no character is different from anyone else. I wouldn’t have even known Willis’s name in the movie had I not read the end credits.

On the other hand, there are things that benefit the story in relation to the characters. Thankfully, there is no person among Waters’s group who is a rogue dissenter or someone who really questions his judgment.

That’s up to the pack of villagers tagging along, which, unfortunately, is the beginning of the awkward mess that nearly decapitates the story.

Therefore, it’s best to ignore the elements that cut the credibility of “Tears of the Sun.” For about 90 minutes, this is an engaging and entertaining film — a brisk pace, high tension and brief but nicely rendered scenes from Skerritt as Waters’ hard-nosed captain, are all consistent characteristics of this film. Skerritt’s character is particularly interesting because he ironically serves as the film’s blistering logic. He constantly tells Waters to get his act together in parts of the story that lack believability.

The effective suspense is heightened by the darkness of the film. The inspiration of films like “Platoon” is apparent with the usage of dimness to create an eerie atmosphere during the night scenes. The unsure knowledge of what could be lurking in dense jungles is a surefire way to keep the tension tight, and it works well for “Tears of the Sun.”

There are many other scenes or parts of the story that feel borrowed from other war-based films, such as the overhead helicopter shots from “Apocalypse Now,” the directly copied opening scene from “Crimson Tide” or the entire last 10 minutes of “Three Kings.”

The good points of the movie do not outweigh the bad, and after the highly tuned, suspenseful 90 minutes have passed, the film suddenly decides to go in the direction of a gratuitous action film.

The over-long conclusion begins with Waters and his band of seven others pitted against an army much a like the massive group of Orcs during the battle scene of “The Two Towers.”

Bullets and missiles fly through the jungle, the camera endlessly catching plenty of the soldiers blowing things up.

The finale holds little to no intensity, basically because the camera does nothing but show the soldiers simply shooting at something.

On the surface, “Tears of the Sun” passes for relatively decent amusement for a dull night. However, if looked at more deeply, this movie is a mess fused together by the weak aspects that fill it from fade in to fade out.