Film critic Roger Ebert dead at 70

One of Chicago's very own, famed film critic Roger Ebert, succumbed to his long standing battle with cancer earlier today two days after publicly announcing that he was taking a "leave of presence".

Chicago Sun Times wrote:Ebert, 70, who reviewed movies for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years and on TV for 31 years, and who was without question the nation’s most prominent and influential film critic, died Thursday in Chicago. He had been in poor health over the past decade, battling cancers of the thyroid and salivary gland.

Thanks to Paramount, my wife and I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Ebert and his wife Chaz at the press premiere of Transformers Dark of the Moon, who sat directly in the seats behind us. It was quite an honor to meet a film critic whose name had become as big as some of the stars of the films he had reviewed.

To say the least, Roger Ebert wasn't the biggest fans of the Transformers films. However, Mr. Ebert mentioned Seibertron.com in a July 2009 article he had written defending his views about Transformers Revenge of the Fallen which you can view here.

Roger Ebert wrote:Now about those who sincerely believe "Transformers" is a good, even a great, film. I sincerely believe they are wrong. I don't consider them stupid--at least, not (most of) the ones who write to me. Some of the posters at certain popular web forums are nine blooms short of a bouquet. But on the other hand look at the spirited discussions on the movie forums of the all-Transformers-all-the time seibertron.com, where a Paramount exit poll showing "90% of those polled thought the second film was as good or better than the first one" has been received with ridicule. Significantly, those are moderated forums.

Roger Ebert's reviews of the live action Transformers films can be found by clicking on the links below (please note that at the time of this article, his website seems to be having difficulties loading):

• Transformers
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
• Transformers Dark of the Moon

Here's another fun article of his titled "On the origins of Transformers" which you can also find here on the Sun Times website.

I swear I've read a review he and/or Siskel wrote about the original animated Transformers film. If anyone has a link to that, I would like to update this news story with that review. I think I've only read it in a book and haven't seen it online before.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Ebert's wife and family. You can share your thoughts on our forums here at Seibertron.com.