Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man was a film that did everything right, for me, combining action, humor, and heart, it gave me a genuinely good-all-over feeling I’d not gotten from a film since I was a little kid. Sure, in retrospect, the film does drag here and there, and I’ve a few minor quibbles with the casting (DUNST!), but, up to that point, Spider-Man was the best superhero film I’d ever seen.
And then along came Spider-Man 2, which managed to do everything even better. Better villain, better action sequences; heck, I could even look past my disdain for Kirsten Dunst and say that the romantic storyline was better, too.

So naturally my expectations were high for Spider-Man 3. With the casting of Thomas Hayden Church as Sandman (a truly inspired choice) and the long-awaited introduction of Venom, how could it be anything but amazing? Sadly, the two iconic villains were given the short shrift to make room for an absolute snoozer of a subplot involving relationship issues between Peter and Mary Jane that made what should have been the series most kick-ass installment its slowest and most disappointing.

Spider-Man 3 isn’t a terrible movie by any means, but it is certainly the weakest of the three films. Topher Grace’s Venom is wasted, Church’s Sandman is almost non-existent, and far too much time is spent on the gloomy gus that is (was) James Franco’s “New” Green Goblin. It was obvious that Raimi didn’t want to include Venom in this film (if ever), but a big heaping serving of the blame pie should be laid down at the feet of Kirsten “fans won’t want to see a Spider-Man move without me” Dunst, as her whiney and cloying Mary Jane is the film’s biggest villain in my eyes.

Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 alone would make this a five skull set, though, so, despite my disappointment with the third film, I look at its inclusion here as a moderately entertaining bonus.

This is a vitally important series of films for Blu-ray, and the series that will draw viewers to Sony’s HD format. Anything less than a pristine transfer for any of the three films would be unacceptable, and Sony, thankfully, understands that. All three films look fantastic, but, for obvious reasons, Spider-Man 3 sports the best video transfer of the bunch, with jaw-dropping clarity and three-dimensional depth that’s equally as impressive in the film’s many daytime sequences as it is in the shadows of the nighttime battle royale at the film’s conclusion.

All three films boast a sonically satisfying Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround and a crisp and pulverizing uncompressed audio track that both deliver cinema quality audio experiences without the sounds of chirping cell phones and screaming babies.

While Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 are presented sans bonus material (save for the option of watching Spider-Man 2 in its theatrical or extended cut), Spider-Man 3 is presented as Sony’s first 2-Disc BD, with loads of extra features (the majority of which are in 1080i HD!) including a two hour plus documentary (broken up into 13 segments), two commentary tracks, trailers, music videos, stills gallery, promotional campaign, and much more.

It’s a bit of a shame that the supplements for the first two films’ DVD incarnations aren’t included, but it’s inevitable that we’ll see them in another release down the line (hopefully mastered in HD!).

This is Spider-Man, people; Sony’s big gun franchise, and the biggest blue chip player in the HD format war. If these films were anything less than audiovisual perfection, I’d be shocked, but, thankfully, Sony knows what's at stake, here, and have given all three titles reference quality transfers and audio tracks to die for. While I'm a bit bummed that the first two films aren't given the "two disc" treatment of the inferior Spider-Man 3, the fact that most of that film's entertaining extras are in HD are an extra special treat, and almost make up for not having the old SD features for the other two films. Any way you slice it, this is the series Blu-ray owners have been waiting for, and I'm happy to say that it doesn't dissapoint (well, not too much, anyway).