I'm not a such strong fan of the Planet of the Apes franchise but at the same time I have a good liking for it. I like the concept, plot lines, philosophy and other themes that make me enjoy and appreciate the franchise. Also given that I love science fiction more than any other form of literature or media.
I have to also admit that I don't get entertained by movies and games as much as I used to, so yes a lot of my spare time can be wasted on boredom.
So once or twice a year I rent/purchase a movie or a game to bring me out of my boredom. Seeing all the classic Planet of the Apes movies almost a decade back on television and on VHS, I thought of it as a good set of films to add to my then limited DVD collection to help keep me out of my boredom during my spare time.
Add to that all the movies were being sold at an affordable price of about forty dollars.
I can't state that I didn't like the DVD box set but at the same time it was definitely not worth my money. I wasn't too crazy about these movies to start with. I actually only liked the first two movies in the series, but I'm not sure if even those two are worth buying.
The problem with the first film Planet of the Apes is while it's filled with good acting, philosophy, dramatic twists etc. it still lacks action and events must take a long time to proceed for the audience to understand the theme of the entire saga.
The problem with the other three movies is they take three intelligent apes from the first two movies back in time to modern Earth using a wrecked spaceship that humans somehow could not repair. If you watch Taylor (played by Charlton Heston) and his crew members monitoring their spacecraft sinking into the lake, Taylor replies "we're here to stay" in response to his crew member reporting their ship has completely sunk.
So one main error of the filmmakers is ruining the saga's realism by giving apes who can barely build towns and guns the ability to pilot let alone repair a ship that can fly at light speed and go backwards in time.
And if it was John Brent's ship that was used to travel back in time, it only hurts the realism even more since that ship was terribly crippled and was beyond repair.
Even if these errors weren't there the whole time travel concept kills the realism of the story just as much.
The story continuing in Escape from the Planet of the Apes not only by this time has taken away the realism from what was supposed to be a science fiction movie series, but also declined the plot and storyline with boring scenes that drag the movie till an ending climax.
This is the same for Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and the Battle of the Planet of the Apes, although I did prefer this one due to it's action sequences.
But aside from that, the last three films are still poor in quality. I found Beneath the Planet of the Apes to be the best one because it balanced out action sequences with dialogue and adventure which the first movie mostly lacked.
So in a box set of five films in which I really end up enjoying one or two films at the most, I answer the question of is it worth buying with a simple no. And since I watch these movies very occasionally or at best in the company of a friend/family, I am not too keen on them and I do plan on selling them soon.
My personal recommendation to readers who are interested in this film franchise is to rent each film and watch them in chronological order to feel the excitement of watching them once. Other than that I do not recommend them being purchased. I don't mean to suggest they are completely bad. As mentioned, there were good things in the series and without a doubt they were far superior to the terrible 2001 Planet of the Apes remake.
But again, even these classic movies are certainly not worth more than a few dollars of your hard earned money.
If you're a hardcore fan, then it's best to purchase them second hand (used) and save money. After all they are the same movies that you saw on TV and/or VHS but in a different format, giving a full improvement in sound and picture quality.
There's also an additional documentary disc included in the set on the making of the series which is interesting to watch once, but not really a must have in my opinion.
If you think you'll be watching these movies from time to time, I still recommend getting them second hand or simply renting them. It is simply not worth buying the DVD box set brand new as I did and for the price I did. You can trust me on that.
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