Very cool CGI, although it seems the movie is distancing itself from the Planet of the Apes continuity. Maybe that's necessary with the end of the Cold War, but it still is a pretty big change to go from nuclear war to animal experimentation.
Well, the original film series distanced itself from its own continuity as far as this early backstory is concerned - by the third and fourth movies they established that the apes revolted prior to the nuclear war, as the result of Caesar's leadership. As a result of the kind of time loop presented in those movies it's impossible to tell whether the nuclear war played any part at all in the "evolution" of the apes after they freed themselves; the apes we see in "Battle For The Planet Of The Apes" are identical to those whom Taylor encounters centuries later, and they're established as existing pretty much unchanged since before the war. There still may be a nuclear war in the future of this new continuity, as well.
OK. I stopped watching after the second movie, so I didn't know this.
If the timeline is at all preserved, they would have to have some kind of nuclear war if they were to worship an Atomic bomb, I would think.