As we amble into the unofficial final month of the summer movie season, Rise of the Planet of the Apes beckons us with its big hairy paw to enjoy the mayhem of the final huge release of the summer. If you miss Rise, you have only yourself to blame as the rest of August feels like the leftovers no one wants to eat so they’ll be put in the back of the refrigerator until they get moldy as…

…you’re going to have to prefab your excuse right now to miss The Help as it’s placed in the exact same release slot that Eat Pray Love was in last year, and you’ve regretted the 5 hours you wasted watching that, haven’t you? You’ve been warned. Remember, racism is bad and Blacks and Whites and ________ [insert an oppressed minority here] working together is good, so you’ve gotten the Very Important Lesson from The Help so you really don’t need to see it.

…it really hasn’t been good summer for Ryan Reynolds has it? And this is from someone who was relatively neutral about Green Lantern. But when The Change-Up (despite Olivia Wilde) can barely beat out the Hangover remake, um, sequel, as an R-rated comedy, then you know you’ve got problems that not even Jason Bateman can solve.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Directed by Rupert Wyatt
Starring James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Andy Serkis, David Oyelowo, Brian Cox, Tom Felton
Release Date: August 5, 2011

Next to Star Trek the Planet of the Apes series is my favorite science-fiction and adventure film franchise by far. I can watch each one of the films, even the lesser sequels like Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes, and come away with something new to think of every time. Each film was a bold and heady Molotov cocktail of intriguing ideas, complex characters, pitch-black satire, and rousing adventure. With the exception of Battle, none of the films ever reached a fully optimistic conclusion, and despite some last-minute tinkering not even the ending of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes was all sunshine and relaxed laughter. The movies were all about the downfall of the human race, brought down by their own imperial arrogance and replaced in the pecking order by the highly evolved apes once treated as pets and slave labor by the ruling elite. It’s certainly one of the most influential series of films in the history of the medium, the original genre franchise, and a merchandising powerhouse years before Star Wars and Harry Potter even existed.

Even though the series reached its end in 1973 with Battle, the Apes franchise endured for decades to come; there was an ill-advised attempt to relaunch the Apes film series in 2001 with the Tim Burton-directed “reimagining” of the original Planet of the Apes and attempts to keep the Planet of the Apes thriving in live-action and animated television that never had achieved the impact of the films. Now the series is getting another shot in the arm with the long-awaited prequel Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which approaches the legend of the Planet of the Apes from an interesting new direction.

With a new Planet of the Apes movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, out this weekend, it’s time to go back to the movie that inspired it: Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth film in the Apes film series that was first released in 1972 and became a smash hit despite the fact that it had a darker tone and more violence than any of the Apes films at the time. Before the film was released its ending had to be changed significantly at the behest of test audiences and understandably nervous studio executives. The original ending saw the light of day when Conquest and the other films in the Apes series were released on Blu-Ray in 2008.

You can watch the original ending for Conquest of the Planet of the Apes below this article by clicking on the screen capture I’ve included at the bottom.

A little confused as to how this week’s big release, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, fits into the franchise’s overall mythology? Well, IGN has just made that a bit easier.

The site has posted an infographic looking at the various characters that you’ve met (or in the case of Rise, will meet), and how each film relates to one another narratively (check out the infographic here below).

Now, as a fan of the franchise, this is a nice refresher leading into the new film. I haven’t gone through and watched these films in at least five or six years, and don’t quite remember how they all work together. According to this piece, Rise is (and this isn’t all that shocking of an idea) outside of the normal Planet Of The Apes universe, but still features our lead ape, Caesar, and his rise to worldwide domination.

With the San Diego Comic-Con in full swing, 20th Century Fox presented three new clips at the Con on Thursday for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The film’s star Andy Serkis was at the panel to introduce the clips, one of which was a Comic-Con exclusive.

You can watch all three clips here below.

Featuring a 15-second introduction by Serkis, who portrays the lead ape character Caesar through a combination of beautifully-rendered CGI and performance capture, the brief clip, titled “The Awakening,” follows Caesar as he prepares to lead his fellow chimps in a mass breakout while their keeper, played by Brian Cox, remains none the wiser. Not much to see here that hasn’t been featured extensively in the film’s trailers and TV spots, but we are treated to some extra shots of the apes coming together for the eventual uprising. I’m still trying to figure out how the gas canisters Caesar releases play into the whole situation: is it supposed to have the same intelligence-increasing effect on the others as the gene therapy treatment had on him? Who’s to say?