Law Abiding Citizen

Welcome to another episode of The "D" List.

Today's review is Law Abiding Citizen. Directed by F. Gary Gray. Written by Kurt Wimmer.

After seeing this movie I couldn't place in my head what past films Law Abiding Citizen reminded me of then it hit me.

Welcome to Death Wish meets Saw.

Having witnessed the murder of his wife and daughter, Clyde Shelton played by Gerard Butler is ready for justice to be served. Up and coming D.A. Nick Rice played by Jamie Fox is in charge of the case and eager to make a deal with one of the brutes to send the other to death row. Clyde, witnessing his dreams of justice expire, walks away, allowing Nick to carry out his plan. 10 years later, the two killers end up murdered in gruesome ways, with Clyde the only possible suspect. Instigating a psychological war with Nick, Clyde demands a new type of justice, mysteriously reaching out from behind bars to systematically torment everyone associated with his case. Nick, fearing for his life, races against the clock to crack Clyde's master plan before he targets his wife and child.

When Law Abiding Citizen feels comfortable enough to be a blunt object of suspense, it comes together splendidly. Pitting the harsh realities of the modern justice system against the suburban cry for blood from a soccer dad. Morally frozen lawyers? Tired, careless judges? as Nick stands firm to his case-winning percentages and Clyde sulks away, beaten down by a system that was supposed to heal his aching heart. Now there's a proper set-up for a bracing thriller that respects the fine art of revenge.

That's what made Law Abiding Citizen work for me was the fact that Clyde's character was not your run of the mill vigilante. When the established order that was in place to see the men that killed his family put to justice fail him, he chose to take the law into his own hands. Now that character arc doesn't make him original by any stretch of the imagination with the exception that he took his time to develop his scheme of comeuppance. That's discipline that demands your respect because it's very easy to believe that Clyde buys a gun and just goes Rambo on everyone in a mass of carnage. To the contrary he preferred to exact his revenge while teaching the system a lesson in the process.

BRAVO!!!!! That is until.....

Unfortunately, Law Abiding Citizen doesn't follow through with its attention grabbing first act. The film toys with the audience building the rivalry between Nick and Clyde as they disagree on what the punishment should be. Staying put with Nick the ladder-climbing opportunist and Clyde the meek idealist provides the film with a sensational, pulse of tension. Unfortunately what happens next is the story fails to have faith in it's simplicity, and it overreaches by turning itself from a solid thriller to a weakened violent thrill ride. Clyde's symphony of revenge plays out like a typical action film, not a sinister pageant of dark justice which was very disappointing.

There was so much positive momentum thrust into the film at the outset that you are gripped into the mystery of Clyde's ability to exact his vengeance while being detained. Then midway through acts 2 and 3 you get the classic exposition moment when you find about Clyde's past. I will not tell you what it is but I think you can take a guess or two and get an idea what super secret Clyde is hiding.

Here is where I BOO!!!!!! the film.

There was no need to go this way. The best part of Clyde's character was in addition to the fact that he was avenging his family while tucked away in jail was the mystery behind his brilliance. How could he possibly be doing this? I know that a mystery is looked at as pointless if it isn't solved but I ask you this as a rebuttal. WHY? Aren't there times when you find it more fun to draw up your own conclusions? I love those moments because it spurs healthy debates between others who have seen the same film. You could have had this here and instead they go to the "Let's spell it out for the moron's" route and that drops the film down several pegs for yours truly. It really is a shame because you are rooting for Clyde all the way through. You feel for him, you connect with his anger and instead of staying with that primal instinct to do harm to those who harmed you, you get this over done character change that you can see coming a mile away.

So as a byproduct of this character turn you are now subjected to the "Michael Bayism" of the film which is massive explosions toward the end. This was another disappointing change in Clyde's attack. Earlier on they were quiet and very calculated. In fact they were reminiscent of Jigsaw's puzzle filled traps from the Saw films. I myself am not a fan of the Saw saga but what I did enjoy from the few I did see was the Jigsaw character and how his mind worked. He was called a killer when in reality he never dealt the death blow to anyone that met their demise. I found that brilliant. It was a change of pace to the hacker/slasher variety. Jigsaw defeated you with his mind while messing with yours. Clyde was a very similar character but instead of staying with it they turned him into the terminator by blowing stuff up.

LAME!!!!!!!

This of course leads to the ending. Which to me was so unsatisfying. This is also a direct result of the movie taking the mega action turn. Because of the genre shift the film doesn't know how to finish so they took the easy way out. So sad. I didn't expect the movie to go this way at then end considering that F. Gary Gray directed Set It Off which had a much different ending to a similar story arc. For those of you who don't remember, Set It Off was the movie with the 4 female bank robbers that starred Vivca A. Fox, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett (before she married Hancock) and Kimberly Elise. The end to that film was against the norm and more importantly was a respectable and feasible climax. Law Abiding Citizen doesn't follow suit and the overall experience suffers from it.

On the 5 star scale. Law Abiding Citizen gets 2.5 stars (I had to drop it from a 3 because of the unfortunate turn of events toward the end) and a split Give It A Shot/Netflix it recommendation.

This was a fun movie with a TON of potential to be great but the cheap hollywood cop outs made it another run of the mill action/thriller.

That's all for today. My next review will be Astro Boy. The latest CGI film based on a very popular Japanese Manga cartoon.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"