I saw this last night with my best friend, a couple hours after rewatching Dawn and a week or so after rewatching Rise. I love it.
The first word I used to describe it? Stressful. At no point in this film do the characters feel safe. There is this building sense of dread and paranoia as more and more mistakes are made; the kind I last felt when watching Children of Men.
The score, and the careful use of it, was excellent. It feels very reminiscent of 60s/70s cinema, with a lot of what I want to say were classic sci fi sounds. There were however, many scenes where there was no music, or even barely any sound at all, letting the actions on the screen speak for themselves. This, coupled with some wonderful camera work that showed you the bare minimum, created moments that lingered, allowing the viewer to process the full horrifying implications of what just happened.
The CGI work was as expected: perfect. Particularly Maurice - there were some scenes where he looked more real than like, Woody Harrelson as the Colonel. I honestly don't see any other film this year surpassing the work done here.
Everything that has generally been praised is pretty much on point. The performances and the plot were captivating and almost entirely unpredictable.
This was one of the best, if not the best film I've seen so far this year, and definitely seals the Apes trilogy as one of the few that gets better with every instalment.
10/10 I would again