Rating: 
Summary: The first Good Science Fiction Movie series.
Review: About nine years before the summer blockbuster became the "in thing" with JAWS, 20th Century Fox had a successful movie followed by pretty good sequals called PLANET OF THE APES, all of the movies tried to build on the success of the 1968 original classic and take the story to as many different levels as possible with the sequal films. The Apes movies benefited from mostly good screenplays, cast of actors, ape make-up effects by John Chambers, and good music scores. They were never numbered sequals, a refreshing alternative to today when so many sequals must be numbered, and not have a story to tell all their own. Buy this collection and ignore the Tim Burton remake.
Rating: 
Summary: Good set...With flaws.
Review: I am slightly peeved at the fact that only the first film got the 5.1 treatment. They all look good, but sound is an important thing. This is not the first time this has been done. Warner Bros. did the same thing with the Superman collection.(The first is fantastic, loaded with features and a very good commentary track)......... I would have loved to see a commentary track on POTA. But there's nothing. The bonus disc is a shorter version of the two disc set that is available. There should have been much more. Fox must do better than this, for the sake of their costumers.Still fun to watch, just dissapointing. A.P.L
Rating: 
Summary: A great series in a lackluster package
Review: Planet of the Apes deserves better treatment than this. I already bought the films on video and was willing to spend the extra cash to get my favorite films on DVD. But what is the point? None of the discs have any extra features---and knowing that deleted footage exists from especially Conquest and Battle one wonders why it wasn't included. The collectors who want to see that material are the very ones who would've been glad to shell out money for the DVDs. Sorry Fox, you'll have to do better than this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing.
Review: You would think that this boxed set could have been a POTA fan's dream, but whoever put it together failed to do the series justice. There is very little in the way of extra features--the one bonus disc is merely a scaled-down version of a two disc "Behind the Planet of the Apes" set that is available to purchase separately. (The bonus disc includes a great documentary originally presented on AMC but it is not even an original production for this set.) Worst of all, the disc of the final movie is an edited version of the original commercial release, deleting all reference to the doomsday bomb that ties the human community in the fifth movie to the one found in the second movie. Of course, none of the sequels do justice to the original so some could argue that this is no big loss. But the only person that could possibly want the entire series would be a true fan, who wouldn't want even the corniest material cut out. So the producers of this boxed set have ruined it for the only market that might get some satisfaction out of it. This patent lack of respect for their own customers makes this a good reason to avoid wasting money on the set, especially since the original movie and the documentary (the only things probably worth owning anyway) are both available for separate purchase on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Ugh!
Review: What we have here is without a doubt a mixed bag. Sure the original Planet of the Apes is a sci-fi classic for the ages, with its brilliant acting, directing, social commentary, and the greatest movie ending ever. Then on came the sequels, all four of them, each one cheesier and goofier than the one before it. This of course was thanks to smaller and smaller budgets (the quality of the movies would have been far increased if a little more money was spent), and the increasingly sloppy directing. (Schaffner why did you have to direct ONE film?) Plus the plots of the next four films contradict the plot of the first one more and more with each movie. While the sequels were good at times (sometimes great) they were never consistently good. But thats not the reason this box is a 3 star affair. This gets that rating for its lack of any interesting extras. All we have is some cheesy trailers, and an interesting documentary, but one that is now available on a separate DVD. So if you want a piece of the Planet of the Apes legacy I would buy the original movie on its own and the documentary and save yourself some money. Or, if you really want to buy the whole series, buy the set on VHS, and save about 30$. But,otherwise, be a smart shopper and leave this set alone.
Rating:
Summary: A Mixed Bag
Review: If I were reviewing the first Planet of the Apes by itself, I would give it a very strong 5 stars. Despite Heston's rather comic overacting, the first movie, scripted by Rod Serling and based upon a novel, is actually a very serious and well-done social satire, which is especially effective if you do not know how it ends (although these days most people who haven't even seen it do know how it ends). Unfortunately, the power of the original movie is ruined by the increasingly silly sequels. No longer (spoiler warning: skip to next paragraph), thanks to the sequels, did humanity destroy itself through war and get replaced by evolved apes. Instead, acccording to the sequels, a couple of the apes from the first movie travel back in time (the end of Beneath...) and have a child who becomes leader of the apes (movie #3). Humans start (quite illogically) breeding apes for intelligence despite their fears of being replaced and killed by intelligent apes as predicted by the time travellers (movie #4), and then this new breed of intelligent apes winds up going to war with the humans (movies #4 and up). This ruins the whole message in the first movie about the self-destructiveness of man. Thus watching the sequels is analogous to watching all the characters who triumphantly survived the end of Aliens just arbitrarily be killed off in Alien 3: it feels like you have been cheated. Rewatching the first movie, I do my best to shut out memories of what happens in the sequels. Even with the message of the first movie destroyed by the sequels, the subsequent films are kind of fun to watch for their schlock value with their increasingly poor production values and dumb scripts. Despite this, even as a fan of bad films, I find the sequels a bit boring (the later the film the worse it gets). It is best to just buy and watch the first brilliant movie and forget that the rest were ever made.
Rating:
Summary: Great movies
Review: I've been a fan of this series for some years. I got this set for X-mas. Any fan should pick this set up. The clarity in picture qulity,especialy the first film, is breath taking. My only gripe is that only the original film was given the 5.1 treatment. Three Pro-Logic and one,Escape, Closed Captioned. If sound is of no concern to you I say go for this set or wait until all the movies are given the full sound treatment. Also one last note the Behind the Planet of the Apes bonus disk is a nice treat.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than the Modern Version
Review: The original five PLANET OF THE APES movies collected together in the EVOLUTION series, even with their evident technical errors, are both entertaining and thought-provoking. And, the sixth DVD, a documentary hosted by Roddy McDowell, provides more insights and interesting interviews. PLANET OF THE APES is also a study, in how Hollywood politics can influence a film project. Although the studio's decisions to authorize sequels gave Paul Dehn and a mind-boggling list of other occassional screenwriters, including Rod Serling, the opportunity and necessity to devise some amazing plot devices, the same studio's budget restraints, rotating directors, and the directive to keep a "G" rating also smothered the movies. Nonetheless, PLANET OF THE APES contains some of the best discussions of scientific and philosophical topics, either directly in open dialogue or obliguely through plot and imagery, seen in movie history. Perhaps, its all the talent from survivors of the MCCarthy era, but there are some very astute political opinions expressed in the film. The APE chronology, as distinct from the vision articulated by STAR TREK or even STAR WARS, is both bleak and revelatory. Like STAR TREK, APES espouses the string theory, developed from Einstein's relativity theories. APES also explains the theory better, and provides the consequences. Where STAR TREK is more optiimistic about human motivations, APES cast doubts on human goodness. After all, humans kill each other, but "apes" do not. Where STAR TREK provides a way to create a better future, APES is trapped in a reductionist psychology. However, APES is a humorous and inspiring experience. If a continuing cast of professionals can produce such material, maybe there is hope after all. ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES is my favorite. It has social commentary, some crafty dialogue, suspense, humor, and political intrigue. Actually, the last three are more cerebral than the first two, but the first two are better crafted. As viewers watch the movies, they can see the future of movies. Commercialism, packaged intellectualism, and schlock. Somewhere beneath all the bad editing is the original anger against human arrogance.
Rating:
Summary: Great package deal
Review: All 5 of the original movies, plus a doc on the production of the movies. Obviously for the Planet of the Apes enthusiast, this package has everything an Apes fan could want. While the sound quality does vary from film to film, meaning some have been given the complete reworking with full Dolby Digital, such as Planet of the Apes, others don't get the same treatment, such as Escape From the Planet of the Apes, still in mono, Dolby Surround is the minimum on the other films. Why they chose to not go with at least stereo on Escape, that is a question for the studio, however, a good receiver will "fake it" pretty well.
Other than the sound on one and only one of the movies, not complaints from me about this great deal.
Rating:
Summary: The collection worth owning
Review: Okay, this is the ultamite collection of ape fans. The special edition with original trailors was a great touch. The only reason I gave it a 4 was that the sequals were great, but weren't as good. Planet of the apes:10
Beneath the Planet of the apes:9
Escape from the planet of the apes:8
Conquest for the planet of the apes:9
Battle for the planet of the apes:8 The first was the best (of course). I liked the plots for each one. Conquest really showed the violent part of Cesar. Conquest shows the legend of cesar and the battle of the humans. The old one is way better than the new Planet of the apes with Mark Walberg. So, this is worth every cent.
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