So, I got a chance to see this last night.
It's pretty good, though it's not a perfect film by any means.
The CG in this film is so unparalled that it's ridiculous. There are some shots where the lights will bounce off the ape characters, and it looks so real that I thought they were puppets.
Vague impressions, but I'll spoiler them nonetheless:
Very curious to see audience reaction to this film, as it is absolutely not an action film. Outside of the opening and the ending, there pretty much isn't a single other major set piece, which is pretty surprising for a 2 and a half hour film.
On one hand, I think it's great that a director (with studio backing) didn't feel the need to force an action scene for the sake of adhering to blockbuster conventionality. On the other, the opening war sequence is so fucking stellar in its scale and how Reeve's frames everything, that I was sad that we didn't get more of it. Seriously, the opening left my jaw agape.
The second section dragged a bit for me, but the performances from the apes are convincing enough to carry it. I really liked Bad Ape's character.
The cinematography is pretty damn good. Dunkirk will probably look better, but as of now it's far and away the best shot blockbuster of the summer. The way they capture a lot of these environments adds a lot of texture to this world.
The third act is a mixed bag. The actual war sequence is pretty much background dressing. Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely gorgeous background dressing, and really captures an amazing sense of scale. But it did feel a bit unsatisfying to have that battle not be directly between apes and humans. And I'm sure for a movie with "War" in the title, people are going to be disappointed that we really only see the apes fight in that opener.
All in all, I like it, despite its more obvious flaws.
I'm perfectly fine with that. Love me some good story telling instead of big bombastic action scenes.
Can't wait.