World War Z is the new movie starring Brad Pitt based on the celebrated novel by Max Brooks of the same name. Both properties deal with an apocalyptic zombie outbreak that threatens humanity the faster it spreads. All similarities between the movie and its original inspiration end there.

It’s been widely reported that the filmmakers behind the film version of World War Z have had many production hurdles in the editing room trying to figure out how to make a coherent and entertaining movie. The final result is an interesting combination of thrilling and awful as some scenes have you on the edge of your seat with suspense and others have you on the edge of your seat threatening to walk out of this movie.

Brad Pitt is our hero in World War Z, a family man introduced in the film’s clumsy and awkward opening act as a former government operative. The details behind his past missions and skills are never explained so it’s even more awkward when of all people, he is the one chosen by the higher ups to do whatever’s necessary to find a solution to our nation’s zombie problem.

It’s hard to connect to a movie that offers so few answers. The Brad Pitt character (his throwaway name is Gerry Lane by the way) is completely devoid of a personality, starting and ending the film as someone who doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. The origins of the zombie attack are never brought up, in fact the film tries to shy away from the alienating “Z” word altogether. I’ve mentioned the word “zombie” more times in this review of World War Z than the movie does in its entire running time.

Despite the many negatives of World War Z (terrible dialogue, thinly outlined characters, plot gaps galore, etc.) there is one very strong positive, the action set pieces. Without spoiling the particulars, there are some sequences in this film that are surprisingly thrilling and suspenseful, culminating in the third act climax which was completely restructured for the final release. This last third of World War Z is where much of the tinkering behind the scenes took place and it’s the strongest part of the film. So in other words, whoever decided to create a brand new finale to make this movie stronger, good job.

It’s unfortunate that World War Z is such a cinematic see saw, it bores you one minute and thrills you the next. A consistent tone and structure would’ve been nice, especially if that tone and structure resembled the action sequences more than the film’s cheesy family dynamics. As it stands there are equally strong and bad components to World War Z making the final film a very interesting mess.

Grade: C

Rated: PG-13 for intense frightening zombie sequences, violence and disturbing images.

World War Z opens in theaters on June 21, 2013.