If this makes mediocre scores like Alan Silvestri's Volcano (which I don't find mediocre, actually) sound like "triumphs of character", how come there's the same amount of stars?

I know it was said the score "barely achieves a third star", but I see no reason not to go the whole hog and knock it off. Being "inoffensive" doesn't justify a third star, necessarily - just look at the devastating reviews of some of Hans Zimmer's most ear-pleasing works (Pirates of the Caribbean sequels especially, not to mention Steve Jablonsky's Transformers 1) merely because of their inoriginality (which plagues this score too, just not quite as obviously).