Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby head Marvel’s first family in pleasing 'Fantastic Four' film

The latest adaptation of the Fantastic Four, often referred to as Marvel’s First Family, really puts the emphasis on family.

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is an entertaining space adventure with a fun retro-futurist visuals, thrilling action, and a cast well-suited for their respective roles, if not always perfectly utilized.

Set on an alternate universe Earth glittering with 60s style space age buildings and technology, the movie doesn’t waste time getting into origin of this fab four. That’s handled by an amusing montage showing Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), his wife, Sue Storm aka The Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), her brother Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm aka The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) demonstrating their powers (super stretching, invisibility and force fields, fire, and rocky strength, respectively) for humanity after getting blasted with cosmic radiation in space.

What actually kicks off the bulk of the plot is Sue’s pregnancy, a long-awaited one loaded with significance and uncertainty as she and Reed worry about the baby’s health, especially given his parents’ superhuman genes. The news brings the arrival of The Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), a being who warns of the coming of Galactus, a cosmic being who consumes planets and has an interest in the Reed and Sue’s little bundle of joy.

As grand a scale as that dilemma is, “Fantastic Four” scales back the global destruction, with much of the action taking place in outer space versus crushing any major cities (apart from a few sections of New York, which always seems to bear the brunt of cinematic disaster). The focus is very much on this little family of four, the anxieties that come with parenthood and wanting to do everything humanly, and in this case superhumanly, possible to keep your kids safe.

That works best coming from Kirby as Sue Storm, who not only has to literally deliver the baby in zero gravity in space, but convince the world that we’re all one big family that can work together to defeat the planet-eating alien. Kirby pulls it off all with a quiet strength and some fun reminders to never get between a mom and her baby.

The rest of the cast does well enough, even they all feel a little disconnected from one another. Pascal works best in the emotional scenes but holds back the charm to make an overly stuffy genius at times, while Quinn’s Johnny Storm is a fun little brother type without being annoying. Moss-Bachrach brings the quiet emotion as the hulking rock creature, but his talents still feel wasted under the CGI creation.

Naturally, there’s plenty of action, but the pacing keeps things from feeling repetitive and the stakes are clear in each battle with the cosmos. And the real highlight is the mid-century modern look of everything, with 60s styling blending seamlessly with future-tech (including the easiest to read pregnancy test ever invented). “Fantastic Four” also blends in a healthy dose of humor from the charming cast, including a top-tier scene of three men, one of them a literal genius, struggling to get a baby seat secured into a car.

It's hard to say where “Fantastic Four” will rank in the grand scheme of Marvel (though it’s clearly teeing up a few things for “Avengers: Doomsday”), but it’s an entertaining ride fit for the family.

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is in theaters July 25.