World War Z

On-screen zombies have rarely been as powerful or frightening as those in World War Z, a taut and harrowing thriller that continues the recent trend of placing the walking dead in a new cinematic light.

Audiences saw zombies acting out romantic comedy in Warm Bodies just a few months ago, and parts of this film feel as though they’ve stumbled on to the set of a biomedical drama.

Indeed, it’s a mostly clever and subversive portrayal of the infected, supplemented by gratuitous amounts of explosions, 3D special effects, and Brad Pitt heroism.

Pitt stars as Gerry, a former United Nations negotiator whose expertise is called upon when a zombie epidemic suddenly hits various urban centers along the East Coast. Gerry would rather protect his wife (Mireille Enos) and young daughters than save the world, but he is blackmailed into helping to find a cure that will at least slow the outbreak.

The dilemma rapidly spreads worldwide, and Gerry’s travels take him to Asia and the Middle East, where he teams with a mysterious female soldier (Daniella Kertesz) and various world health officials while hatching a plan for survival.

Zombies have evolved quite a bit since the early days of director George Romero in the 1960s. And in this film, their attacks are especially vivid and intense, and noticeably absent of much gore. Despite a general lack of sociopolitical context, there’s a contemporary immediacy to the material, including an opening sequence set amid crowded urban landscape of Philadelphia that provides a white-knuckle highlight.

The film has become noteworthy for its reported clashes during post-production between Pitt and director Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace), but the squabbling doesn’t manifest itself on the screen. Pitt’s performance is solid and Forster maintains a quick pace and a slick visual style.

The script was adapted from a novel by former “Saturday Night Live” writer Max Brooks by a trio of screenwriters including Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods), Matthew Carnahan (Lions for Lambs) and Damon Lindelof (Star Trek Into Darkness). Their approach is somewhat backward, to string together several high-concept globetrotting action set pieces before scaling back the tension with a more cerebral final act that suffers from flimsy science and a lackluster ending.

At any rate, World War Z offers plenty of thrills within its elaborate apocalyptic framework, even if it ultimately provides more mainstream spectacle than narrative substance.

Rated PG-13, 116 minutes.