I don't know about this. I certainly agree with you that Davis overuses William's themes in this score. I don't know whether this was out of fear of being insulted from lack of using the 'musical heritage' of the previous Jurassic Park films or if he just wasn't able to create a theme of his own that could carry the film on its own accord. But I don't feel as strongly upset about this as you do. The themes are overused in inappropriate places as you say, but on album that isn't as much an issue, and therefore that particular gripe could only be seen as a problem while watching the movie, and as it turns out it isn't that much of an issue even watching the film (although it does sort of lessen the effect of the theme). Personally I think that the lack of any Matrix-style themes by Davis (which would obviously be grossly inappropriate for this film) is an asset and because of this, this score could be seen as a "More Music From Jurassic Park" CD. While it carries very little musical identity that sets it apart from the other two films, it is still nevertheless a strong orchestral effort.

I think that Davis succeeded in creating a very Williamesque score, and probably succeeded even better than many film score fans would have preferred. And as far as that goes, aside from the overuse of the main theme, this score works pretty well in the film as a virtual thematic clone of the first film. The only reason you can tell that this film is Jurassic Park III as opposed to Jurassic Park is the idiotic storyline and the bad acting. So as far as the lack of originality goes and the on-album listening experience, this is the weakest of the three film scores, but nevertheless is a strong 3-star effort. And yet, one can't help but wonder if this score would have turned out better without the mis/over-use of Williams' themes. Not being an expert on Don Davis, I really don't know what he would have come up with without Williams' mentoring in the orchestrations and thematic uses for this film. Thus, we had better be happy with what turned out, for it could have been a hell of a lot worse.

In film: ***1/2
On album: ***