Law Abiding Citizen

Rating: 8.2/10

Genre: Thriller

Overall value for money and time: 8.3/10

Judging from the movie poster, I'm not sure why this movie came out so late in Singapore but can only assume its due to censorship issues...

A father whose wife and daughter were murdered helplessly witness one of the murderers being set free due to a plea bargain. 10 years later, he's back to bring justice to those involved in the case. Afterall, he was only just a forgotten law abiding citizen who was at the mercy of the justice system.

This movie opens your eyes to the darker side of our justice system, and evokes the dilemma of morality issues. The opening sequence fires up the pace for the movie and the movie was intense throughout, leaving one in deep anticipation of what comes on next... The plot is fairly unpredictable and the direction was almost flawless. The director had a great "eye" for takes as he focuses on the "right" stuff, allowing us to "zoom" in on the emotions of the both leads, Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx. However, the ending disappointed me as it steers itself away from the ingenuity of the entire movie, though it did still pack a semi-punch.

*spoilers ahead*. The movie was a little biased towards showing the ugly side of those serving on the justice system, might be an objective point of view, but probably a little too exaggerated. After watching this movie, oen will be disappointed with the system and might even form a cult under Gerard Butler's character, Clyde Shelton. This movie allowed us to sympathetize with the disappointed Shelton and gives us a rather twisted perspective that what he's doing is only right...

Still, one cannot blame Shelton for doing so.... If it did happen to me, if my wife and child were taken away from me, and if I had the wits to take down the system, I might even do the same. This movie proves that one cannot weigh and judge justice by rationalism alone. It's a grey area between what is right and what is wrong.

The confrontations between both protagonists were comparable to the one of American Gangster; Gerard Butler was to Denzel Washington, as Jamie Foxx was to Russell Crowe. The entire movie allowed us to feel for the characters while keeping the morality issues at bay. The rest of the supporting cast did a great job as well, no one too fake, or too outstanding to steal the limelight from both of them.

I have to say, I enjoyed the movie tremendously, packs good thinking and turned out better than expected. I chose watching Legion over this movie and though I regretted before the screening, I don't anymore. A movie which would appeal to movie thinkers and those who likes "heavy-hearted" movies. It's one hell of a gloomy movie but it's probably one of the best genre-related movies I've seen!!