Some movies jumped the queue by virtue of being on TV, but I ended up watching Pitch Black last night. Overall I was entertained, though there were some plot conveniences and I would have liked less hinting at times when it came to Riddick’s history and his relationship with Johns. Their final fight came earlier than I expected and I wish it wasn’t so short, but I did like these two characters and the way it ended up. Fry dying was kind of random, but I guess it is supposed to impact Riddick for the sequels and the surprise of it provided a twist to an otherwise fairly predictable film. Initially I thought the supporting characters were pretty much expendable, but then I realized that is always their point in movies like this and they had more personality to them than the average sci-fi/horror movie at least (except for the muslim kids, they just got wrecked). I’m not particularly inclined to watch the sequel, but I had fun with this one.
I think what you said about characters like Riddick and Johns being more interesting as not the actual protagonist is true. It’s one of the reasons I like MGS2 so much, you get to fight with Snake rather than as Snake and see him through the eyes of Raiden, who you control for most of the game. Did you end up playing the MGS series?