While acknowledging that "Labyrinth" was made with "infinite care and pains", Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four as he felt that the film "never really comes alive". Ebert said that as the film was set in an "arbitrary world" none of the events in it had any consequences, robbing the film of any dramatic tension. Gene Siskel's review of "Labyrinth" for the "Chicago Tribune" was highly negative, and he referred to it as an "awful" film with a "pathetic story", "much too complicated plot" and a "visually ugly style". Siskel objected to the film's "violent" plot, writing, "the sight of a baby in peril is one of sleaziest gimmicks a film can employ to gain our attention, but Henson does it."