Third time’s the charm for the new Four, for the most part. Faithful and fastidious to its comic book origins but strangely dramatically inert, Matt Shakman’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps (B-) does a better job than past attempts to ignite this story but remains simply a passable initial entry into Phase Six of Marvel movies. The glorious production design evokes a retro-futuristic Manhattan with such splendid detail in the film’s first act that it’s a shame there’s really no place to go from there. Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby dutifully play a married couple in a quartet of astronauts imbued with superpowers. He’s stretchy and she’s sometimes invisible, and very few interesting sight gags come from that premise. Joseph Quinn is equally unmemorable playing the Human Torch, supposedly the comic relief, but he doesn’t really blaze the screen with much of a bonfire of hilarity. This feels like the most obligatory team-up since the Gerald Ford cabinet. The heroes fight an intergalactic character who gobbles up full worlds, and yet his presence is evocative of a kaiju rampaging a city block. Still, given some of the MCU movies of late, this one has a positive message and a science-forward agenda and doesn’t careen into too much nonsense. The crafts are impressive. Graded on a curve, this is at least cogent if uninspiring.