Todd McCarthy of "Variety" stated that the film was "too genteel" in spite of its impressive cinematography and believability. Mick LaSalle from "The San Francisco Chronicle" felt that, by attempting to make the classic legend a morality tale, it lessened the film's impact, also criticizing Polley as being miscast. "The New York Times"s Manohla Dargis gave the film two out of four stars, commenting that, while it featured excellent cinematography and production values, the film was undone by its reinterperatation of Grendel and removal of all the mystical elements of the original story. Nick Schager of "Slant Magazine" offered similar criticism, stating that the film "fail to generate a requisite degree of mythic grandeur" which greatly diminished the scope and power of the original epic. Schager would also criticize the film's added vulgarity, and Polley's casting.