This is a great site

http://www.kubrick2001.com/

It was alright. I wonder how much of it was their personal interpretation and how much was Stanley Kubrick's / Arthur C. Clarke's idea. They said that it was the apes' fear, curiosity and courage that made them develop tools, not the monolith itself, while Clarke's novel makes it appear as though the monolith messes with them which causes some to die and some to "become human".

To me, the monolith represented fundamental questions in life that refuse to be answered, like the 'planet' Solaris in Stanisław Lem's novel of the same name.

This Space Odyssey remake is slightly more entertaining: http://www.spiteyourface.com/one/film.html