Brad Pitt called on to save the world from zombies

PHOTOGRAPHER: Paramount Pictures

From left, Sterling Jerins plays Constance Lane, Fabrizio Zacharee Guido is Tomas and Brad Pitt stars as Gerry Lane in â€œWorld War Z.â€

There used to be two types of zombies: the slug-slow variety in “Night of the Living Dead” and “The Walking Dead,” and the track-star sprinters of “28 Days Later” and the “Dawn of the Dead” remake.

Now we’ve got a third, even faster category to worry about. In “World War Z,” the undead are as speedy as Justin Bieber’s Ferrari at a paparazzi convention. And, they can make ladders out of themselves and propel themselves skyward.

That’s just one of the twists on zombie lore that makes “WWZ” a fun, if not particularly emotionally engaging, thrill ride.

Very loosely based on Max Brooks’ unfilmable best-selling novel, which is a history book of sorts from the future about how the zombie war went down, “WWZ” is a straightforward narrative of survival amid carnivorous chaos and a hunt to find a cure.

Brad Pitt plays Gerry Lane, a former U.N. security agent turned Philadelphia househusband to adoring wife Karin (Mireille Enos, “The Killing”) and their two daughters, Rachel (Abigail Hargrove) and Constance (Sterling Jerins). While news of some sort of outbreak flickers on their morning TV screens, everyone’s too busy being adorable in the Lane household to take notice.

‘World War Z’

DIRECTED BY: Marc Forster

STARRING: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, David Morse, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale and Matthew Fox

RATED: PG-13

GRADE: C+

RUNNING TIME: 116 minutes

Whipping up some tension

Then, while the family’s stuck in traffic, zombies swarm like locusts, hurling themselves through windshields and turning commuters into instant breakfast. It’s in scenes like these when “World War Z,” directed by Marc Forster (“Quantum of Solace“), moves with a jittery, heart-racing momentum. In fact, the first 20 minutes are an exercise in the art of creating tension.

But things slow down once the Lanes are rescued by the U.S. government and put aboard a naval vessel. Gerry is assigned to a team that must come up with a solution to what they think is a viral outbreak. As the world’s capitals go dark and civilization teeters on the brink, word comes that Israel is safe, having built massive walls around itself that were completed just before the first attacks. How did they know? Who else knew? And when?

Gerry and a few soldiers fly to Israel, and this sets the stage for the movie’s impressive technological centerpiece: the wall-climbing zombie invasion of Jerusalem.

“WWZ” also deserves kudos for not following the predictable action-movie pattern of getting bigger and louder as it roars toward its conclusion. In fact, the climax — set within the confines of a lab — is downright intimate, more “Andromeda Strain” than “A Good Day to Die Hard.” And there’s a brief but chilling performance from David Morse, who plays a man who was in North Korea at the time of the outbreak. There, he had all his teeth forcibly removed, which was how that country tried to stem the zombie tide — if nobody has teeth, no one can be bitten. (Now that would make a really scary movie.)

Israeli actress Daniella Kertesz is also strong as a soldier trying to keep Gerry safe as things fall apart.

Lacking the dread

Yet, unlike the best in the zombie genre, the movie doesn’t tap deep into the existential dread of succumbing to mob bloodlust and the fear of the crowd. Maybe it’s because of Pitt’s star wattage (you know nothing really bad is going to happen to him). Maybe it’s because “WWZ” is PG-13 and viewers don’t see zombies snacking on innards like lunch meat (the average episode of “The Walking Dead” is more graphic than this).

More likely, it’s because the film, which reportedly had a troubled production, had so many writers (five), that it sometimes feels choppy and disconnected. Matthew Fox, as a soldier, comes and goes before you even realize that he’s there.

Plus, there are nagging questions left unanswered, like why certain parts of the planet — for instance, Wales and Nova Scotia — seem relatively unscathed from the zombie hordes. Do zombies hate cold, clammy weather?

Most likely, it will all become clear in the sequel. Because you know that Hollywood, the biggest zombie of them all, won’t be able to resist the taste of that.