J.J. Abrams' [movie id="305755"]"Star Trek"[/movie] is getting a jump on the weekend by coming out on Thursday-evening (May 7). The franchise reboot tells an origin story in which James T. Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Enterprise crew meet and band together to protect the galaxy from all manner of aliens bent on widespread destruction. Six years after the embarrassment of "Star Trek Nemesis," will this newest installment deliver the goods?

So far, Abrams' updated take on the venerable sci-fi franchise has come in for near-universal praise. At press time, it stands at a staggering 95 percent freshness on RottenTomatoes.com, which compiles reviews from across the country. After taking a look at what everyone else has been saying, we present to you a sampling of what critics are saying about "Star Trek."

"J.J. Abrams' 'Star Trek' is a gift to those of us who loved the original series, that brainy, wonky, idealistic body of work that aired to almost no commercial success between 1966-69 and has since become a science-fiction archetype and object of cult adoration. ... It's a blockbuster for the Obama age, when smarts and idealism are cool again. In fact, can't you picture our president -- levelheaded, biracial, implacably smart -- on the bridge in a blue shirt and pointy ears?" -- Dana Stevens, Slate.com

"Fans will be delighted with how perfectly Chris Pine captures the essence of a brash, younger James T. Kirk and with the pitch-perfect performance given by Karl Urban as cranky, complaining, utterly endearing Leonard 'Bones' McCoy. They're toying with icons here and they more than do them justice." -- Josh Tyler, CinemaBlend.com

"The editing, cinematography and special-effects work are state-of-the-art, as you'd expect -- extra praise goes to an astonishingly detailed sound mix -- but so are the same aspects of 'Wolverine,' and that film's a joyless bore by comparison. What lifts the Abrams film into the ether is the rightness of its casting and playing, from [Zoe] Saldana's Uhura, finally a major character after all these years, to Urban's loyal, dyspeptic McCoy, to Simon Pegg's grandly comic Scotty, the movie's most radical reimagining of a 'Star Trek' regular." -- Ty Burr, The Boston Globe

"The movie deals with narrative housekeeping. Perhaps the next one will engage these characters in a more challenging and devious story, one more about testing their personalities than re-establishing them. In the meantime, you want space opera, you got it." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Will the vampires grab more trophies than the slumdog? What was the year's ultimate onscreen WTF moment? It's up to you to decide the winners of the 2009 MTV Movie Awards. Vote now, and tune in on May 31 at 9 p.m. ET, when the big show airs live from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California.

Check out everything we've got on "Star Trek."

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