Comic book cinema goes Mid Century Marvel for “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” a sleek and gorgeous looking reboot of this franchise that harks back to Fantastic 4 comic and TV cartoon’s heyday.

The film’s true star is production designer Kasra Farahani, who brings the ’60s back to life — on Earth 828 in the multiverse — with sweater vests, bouffants, crew cuts, ties, Homberg hats and jumpsuit fashions, minimalist plastic chairs, Edsels and their tail-finned ilk, all supplemented by the futuristic blessings of what four superhumans and their ability to broker world peace and cooperation might bring.

Yeah, somes cars fly. Mostly cop-cars, but hey…

These kid-friendliest comics tend to park any film attempt at relaunching Fantastic Four in the more juvenile PG/PG-13 realm — “entry level” comic book films for younger viewers. The more comedy the better, with jovial tough-guy banter from Ben Grimm/The Thing, punk put-downs by Johnny Storm the Human Torch and dorky supportive couplespeak from the married Mister Fantastic Reed Richards and his vanishing “Invisible Woman” wife Sue Storm.

But four credited screenwriters couldn’t find a joke if Jerry Seinfeld texted it to them. And our years of blaming the casts for the failure of these films should probably stop, as Pedro Pascal (Mister Fantastic has never been duller and Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm) never manages more than a moment or two of spark or empathy. They deserved better.

Joseph Quinn has too little that’s fun to say or do as Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach simply doesn’t register and seems utterly, humorlessly miscast as The Thing.

“Hey, say the thing,” “many ask, some of them joking. You know. The catchphrase. “‘What time is it?'”

“Stop it,” Ben says.

“It’s CLOBBERIN’ time,” you mean? “It’s just in the cartoon,” Ben grimly, bloodlessly reminds us.

Four years of a nation and a world with The Fantastic Four in it have earned them their very own ABC (in Living Color) TV special and appreciation as “the best of us,” us being the human race and Americans boldly embracing the future.

Reed and Sue discover they’re pregnant.

“Nothing’s going to be different.” “EVERYthing’s going to be different!”

Johnny and Ben are happy roommates in a spacious mid century modern penthouse.

And then this “herald” shows up, a Silver Surfer (Julia Garner, not-quite-recognizable in her CGI guise) to warn them that “The Devourer of Worlds,” “Galactus” is on his/its way as “Your planet is now scheduled for destruction.”

Make your peace with it, don’t fight it, you’re done for yadda yadda.

The Four must board the Good Ship Excelsior, find this Gallactus and, you know, “talk.”

We all know what that will mean. And four credited screenwriters know we know. So they barely put any effort into setting up the Big Confrontation, sleepwalking through the opening acts, perfunctorily cutting-and-pasting the suspense free middle act “build up.”

Plot elements, sci-fi inventions and set-pieces are borrowed from “Star Trek,” “Star Wars” and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, what we see on the screen is gloriously over-designed joylessness. This script had possibilities, and this far less “fantastic” four at the keyboards couldn’t see them or find the fun in this world, these characters or “Clobberin’ time,” when it finally arrives.

The only appropriate response is to throw up one’s hands at Marvel’s inability to get this cornerstone franchise right, with or without the kiddie pool touches.

Rating: PG-13, sci-fi action/violence, mild profanity

Cast: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Paul Walter Hauser, Natasha Lyonne, Julia Garner and Ralph Ineson.

Credits: Directed by Matt Shakman, scripted by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer, based on the Jack Kirby/Stan Lee comics. A Marvel Studios release.

Running time: 1:55