I had the unfortunate experience of hearing some of the theme music for the 3rd Harry Potter movie. This is exactly why I don’t like John Williams. Watch the intro here to hear it.
What did you object to exactly? (Sorry–my speakers are so poor that it’s hard to either understand the words or to make any sort of aesthetic decision about the music…)
I also can’t hear any glaring deficiencies in the music. It sounded pretty similiar to music in the first two HP movies.
It has a mysterious/creepy feel to it, which I think fits the movie nicely.
The only thing I didn’t like was the loud piercing whistles (or piccolo?) in the beginning - which could have just been my crappy speakers on my labtop. I like how he makes the low woodwinds laugh in the beginning though; it sounds like an evil cackle. 
I really don’t like his music in the Harry Potter movies. In fact, it might just be the music that makes me like the movie less.
I loved the track The Mecha World, from A.I. Artificial Intelligence that he did a couple of years ago.
I especially love Don Davis’s music in The Matrix movies, it is beautiful.
Hey Richard,
I know this is not directly relevant to this topic but it is in some way. I would request that you, being so heavily involved with music as you are, start a new topic where you, and others, can explain what makes music good. And include tiddlywink music as well. I think this would be a great place to get the aesthetics of music further.
Oh, and I’ll add that I agree that it sucks. It makes me cringe.
While we’re on the topic of musical scores for movies, who here liked Howard Shore’s compositions for The Lord of the Rings films? Personally I felt that they served as an excellent contribution to the journey, going beyond a simple accompaniment. The creatures, places and events in the film were all given a certain unique feel by the music.
I thought Shore’s music in LOTR was at least well written and gos well with the film. I generally don’t like film music when seperated from films, since much of it is intended to invoke negitive emotions. There are exceptions, but most film music shouldn’t be seperated from the film.