Though arrayed in the cold, utilitarian finery of what 1950's America envisioned the distant future would be and decorated with a bit of Freudian psychology for flair, the story that Forbidden Planet tells is as old as civilization itself: Man's attempts at self-transcendence/divinization are doomed to failure because of his nature. While a bit less viscerally entertaining than I would have liked, the film rests securely on its performances, production design, and visual effects. And while the narrative itself (apparently loosely based on Shakespeare's The Tempest) is quite an old one, it was cool to see the nascent elements of everything from Star Trek to Marvel comics. So while not my absolute favorite 1950's sci-fi I've seen so far, it was still very good.
Review of Forbidden Planet
