Law Abiding Citizen/YMMV

• Complete Monster: Clarence Darby. He stabs Shelton, beats him with a baseball bat, rapes and murders his wife, brutally kills Shelton's young daughter, sold his partner up the river (when the partner tried to stop him), laughs when he hears that his partner died in agony, and tries to murder Clyde for no reason (mind you he isn't even aware of who Clyde is at this point, meaning he's doing it for no real reason then because he enjoys it.) Pretty much the only reason Clyde is sympathetic is because Darby is worse.
  • Clyde arguably becomes one in the second half of the film.
• Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: This feeling hits home for viewers who become increasingly disillusioned with Clyde's actions halfway through the film. Clyde starts off as sympathetic, but he eventually becomes worse than the madman (Darby) who sparked off his rage in the first place. As for the attorneys and lawyers on the other side, they're immoral strawmen made to look as corrupt as possible, except for Cindy, who dies as well thanks to Clyde. When one realizes Clyde's hypocrisy reaches the level of Jigsaw it's impossible to root for anybody. See Black and Gray Morality.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Almost every death in the movie could be classified as this.
• Draco in Leather Pants: There are quite a few people who present Clyde as a hero fighting a corrupt system, ignoring that many of the people who die at Clyde's hands were simply employees doing their jobs, who were not actively trying to wrong him. That and he killed his cellmate simply to advance his plot. Clyde might be sympathetic, but the crimes he committed are still wrong.
• Family-Unfriendly Aesop: This is a movie that presents the line "Fuck his civil rights" as a Crowning Moment of Awesome. Nuff said.
  • There's an aesop? The whole point was about moral ambiguity.
  • Considering the movie ends with the main character getting to see his daughter perform at her concert, it does seem to support his position of "Fuck his civil rights".
• Magnificent Bastard: Clyde Shelton. You may not approve of the idea that guides him but you have to admit and admire his style and execution.
• Memetic Mutation: The "Law Abiding Engineer" machinima... Which works a little bit too well.
• Moral Event Horizon: Darby crosses this in the the FIRST TWO MINUTES of the movie. Clyde crosses it when he murders his cellmate for no other reason then to advance his Xanatos Roulette. Although there are many different views, this is the most widely cited.
  • He was just an inmate.
  • Clyde crosses it a lot actually. Unfortunately Nick's assistant wasn't "just an inmate". By that point he was irredeemable.