Special effects do not make a movie great

You know the old joke about military intelligence being an oxymoron? Well, “Stealth” proves it.

This slice of military unintelligence is about three top-level Navy fighter pilots (Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx) and the computer-piloted fourth plane in their squadron, which has more personality than any of them. Eventually, the computer-piloted plane becomes a killing machine in a way that’s supposed to recall the inhuman horror of HAL going nuts in “2001,” but that’s a lot closer to the inane banter of “Knight Rider.”

Despite three capable actors in the leads – well, OK, two out of three – “Stealth” is largely given over to computer-generated shots of planes flying around shooting at things, rather than to anything that has to do with human beings. In fact, people are usually referred to as “collateral” when one of the pilots accidentally bombs them off the planet.

For instance, there’s a scene in which Biel is ejected from her plane and plummets toward Earth, describing the whole plunge to Mission Control. But, instead of showing how sad they are to lose a colleague, “Stealth” shows how cool the whole thing looks.

Director Rob Cohen, who made the entertainingly ridiculous “The Fast and the Furious,” is a guy who’s less likely to say, “Gosh, I wonder how people would feel in this situation” than “Gosh, I wonder if we can get those flames higher and redder” or “How many times can we get that pickup truck to somersault?”

The answer is: About 15, and the last 14 somersaults are boring. There are lots of special effects in “Stealth,” but even the aerial footage isn’t as thrilling as it was in, say, “The Aviator” or “Top Gun.” Fake and digi-looking, these effects – most of which occur while Lucas is battling the computer-controlled plane – have all the excitement of a duel between a guy and his laptop.

But it’s not the computer-generated effects’ fault that “Stealth” is bad. Put the blame right where it should be.

Human error.