The Gundam movies are technically even older, so if animation quality is your problem, they may not be worth it. The situation improved as the Movie series went on, and 70% of the last movie was specifically created for the movie. That's in keeping with the way that the last movie is certainly the best, in fact, it's one of my favourite animated movies. The other two aren't amything like that though, the first is nice enough but a little slow and the second is dull, quite offensive and confusingly presented.
The efforts for both the Gundam and Macross sagas are rather rubbish in the UK at the moment. In fact, taking everything and asking what is best,
Macross Plus is a clear winner, though the Gundam franchise is far more established (Macross Plus and the mutilated Robotech Macross are your lot with Macross). I personally would not recommend the movies as a rites of passage to later Gundam at this moment, for the simple reason that "later" Gundam in the UK at the moment is one of two things:
1) A collection of poor to average films: i) A super compressed OVA to Movie that makes no sense (Gundam 0083) ii) One of the worst Animated movies in history (F91. Try and find a review above 3/10
) iii) An abrubt end to the saga, that falls a little short but can be quite fun (Char's Counterattack)
2) The Wing and Seed continuities that basically retell the same story again and don't have anything to do with the original series.
If the UK had Zeta Gundam, I'd be recommending the Gundam movies straight off, no questions asked (And if Beez are reading this, I will brutally murder you all if we JUST get the compilation movies again). Otherwise, even with such decent properties as Victory Gundam, 0080, 0083 (OVA) and 08TH MS Team, I'd be recommending something more modern first and then suggesting you return to the original series if you're really interested.
As it is, if you want to get into Gundam, I'd say Gundam Seed is your best bet, even if I wouldn't rate the series very highly in the overall scheme of things. It has all the hallmarks of the original and is a far more modern production. I cannot find any reason to recommend Wing and Seed Destiny as first, second or even last series to check out. The former is moronic, the later is entirely confused about its direction, trips over itself and just dies.