Roger Ebert said the film "works and it delivers just about what you expect when you buy your ticket" but felt that it "lacks the mordant humor of the Romero version" and the "plot flatlines compared to the 1978 version, which was trickier, wittier and smarter." Scott Foundas of "Variety" described it as an unnecessary remake that will appeal mostly to young adult audiences who have not seen the original film. Michael Rechtshaffen of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that the film "has no patience for such subtleties" as Romero's thematic concerns or suspense-building. Elvis Mitchell of "The New York Times" wrote that "Mr. Snyder's blood feast is strictly by the numbers: this second-rater could be the world's most expensive Troma film." Manohla Dargis of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote: "Good zombie fun, the remake of George A. Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" is the best proof in ages that cannibalizing old material sometimes works fiendishly well." Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" wrote, "Instead, the new "Dawn of the Dead" satirizes itself and satirizes its genre, and, on its own unambitious terms, the movie succeeds. It's silly, witty and good-natured, not scary so much as icky, and not horrifying or horrible but consistently amusing." Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" rated it "A" and wrote, "Commercial director Zack Snyder, making a killer feature debut, trades homemade cheesiness for knowing style, revels in the sophistication of modern special effects, and stomps off with the best remake – er, "re-envisioning" – of a horror classic in memory." Scott Tobias of "The A.V. Club" wrote that the remake streamlines the original film "by discarding everything special about it in favor of pure visceral effect".