Brad Pitt and his production company have waged an epic battle to get his zombie-war blockbuster World War Z off the ground. Now after years of monstrous production cock-ups, crew resignations, weapons seizures and budget escalations, the beast is about to be unleashed.

The newly released trailer for World War Z, which needs to make $400 million worldwide just to break even, looks as though it might just do that. But only might.

What we have here is the standard Hollywood blockbuster that we’ve come to expect looking like a computer game with all its too-choreographed, overly-epic, and totally ludicrous showdowns. But there’s so much riding on it for Pitt’s production company Plan B and Paramount Studio you get the feeling they will conscript people into cinemas to make sure it’s not a gigantic flop like his previous epic clanger Troy.

The bits we’ve seen in the trailer look like the very thing Pitt was trying to avoid when he set out to make World War Z, which is “Rambo versus Zombies.” But given the marketing budget for a production of its size, and the charming presence of the main man Pitt who will be hot-seating every chat show from now until the DVD release, it stands a chance of succeeding.

Commercially, at least. Because artistically, it looks about as compelling as having your heart ripped out by one of the undead.

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