Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave "The Terminal" three-and-a-half out of four stars, stating that "This premise could have yielded a film of contrivance and labored invention. Spielberg, his actors and writers... weave it into a human comedy that is gentle and true, that creates sympathy for all of its characters, that finds a tone that will carry them through, that made me unreasonably happy". Martin Liebman of Blu-ray.com considers the film as "quintessential cinema", praising it for being "a down-to-earth, honest, hopeful, funny, moving, lightly romantic, and dramatically relevant film that embodies the term 'movie magic' in every scene." For critic Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com, he regards "The Terminal" alongside "War of the Worlds" and "Munich" (also directed by Spielberg) as the three best films made within the studio system that comment upon the September 11 attacks.