I watched it in theaters yesterday and enjoyed it! Beautiful post-apocalyptic imagery, decent writing, great digital graphics, great story boarding. I’m always excited for sci fi epics and this scratched that itch.
One facet I thought could have been more robust was the question of human vs ape intelligence (which obviously comes up a lot). I felt there was competing messaging without a lot of complex exploration of intelligence or speciesism which could have deepened the film.
I was a little all over the place, but I enjoyed it none the less. I would have liked to see more of the day to day lives of the apes under Proximus’ rule too, but I get that it was a very personal story without much room for that.
I’d give it a solid 6.5, decent, but not nearly as good as dawn/rise/war.
Also Raka was my favorite character. There was an orangutan noise that played after the credits finished rolling that sounded like him, so I’m hoping that means he’s still alive and will be in the sequel.