THE BOOK is best to understand the story.
The idea is Earth was visited and altered by intelligence from outside Solar System to cultivate the human species which succeed to the point to find the monolith on the Moon that passed the test to go to the next step...Hal was flawed thinking he should contact the aliens not man. Dave reached them and they made him into the Star Child sent back to Earth to guide humankind forward to the stars etc etc.
Very new agey and humanistic flick but still preety neat.
Very new agey and humanistic flick but still pretty neat