Ultimately, Iron Man is a fairly crap movie with excellent performances from Robert Downey Jr and Jeff Bridges.

My expectations were not particularly high, although the trailer did get my pulse racing, I have long since learned not to trust the trailers - especially when it comes to Summer films.

So I figured it’d be a bit of a laugh but I guess somewhere I did secretly hope that just maybe they would make a good film.

By what seems to be modern standards it’s not a bad film, but modern standards seem to be pretty low these days aren’t they?

I never read a huge amount of Iron Man stories, but I am fairly convinced there must be a wealth of material out there to draw on - so why on earth did it seem like they struggled terribly to find a plot?

Come on people, stop making films until you have the plot thought out!!!

It’s really not good enough to rely on the charisma of your main actors and then pit two superpowered yokes against each other as an afterthought for a finale. And yes, that pretty much is a summation of Iron Man the film, and I’m sorry if I have ruined it for you.

However, I’m not ready to admit that Eoin was right and it was a terrible film, because I turned my brain off and enjoyed the cool suit and the two good performances, and despite it not being a good film I want you all to go to it because maybe then we’ll get the second installment (which I believe Robert Downey Jr has signed up for) and which might be better now that they can relax into it a bit.

There is still potential for a real kick ass Iron Man movie which actually has useful things for a film, like plot.

I was thrilled to be invited, by the man himself, to go and see John Spillane in the Opera House last night. I hadn’t seen him play in quite some time and so was really looking forward to it - and he did not disappoint.

Before the man himself made an appearance we were treated to some wonderful songs from Ger Wolfe, who seemed to have gone from strength to strength since I had last seen him perform. His guitar playing was unbelievable, and his rendition of ‘Curra Road’ was, as he said himself, a wonderful welcome to the summer.

John himself has a new album out called ‘My Dark Rosaleen & the Island of Dreams’, which is available to buy on iTunes (or buy the cd on Claddagh), and his set featured a good mix of old and new songs from the ‘Hit Factory’.

I own a copy of all John’s albums (except the latest which I will purchase during the week) but there’s something about John Spillane’s music that is best experienced live.

John Spillane has an incredible stage presence, it’s not a large ego type presence - he’s an incredibly humble and self effacing man - but something changes when he walks on stage, and he immediately forms a connection with the audience which allows him to create a wonderfully intimate atmosphere, even in a large venue like the Opera House.

“Everything’s Turning to Gold Cathy” was probably the finest version of it I have heard yet, and that’s saying something as I have been to a huge number of John Spillane gigs where he has played it. “All the Ways You Wonder” always seems to have something new every time I hear it performed and this was no exception, definitely another highlight.

I was delighted to hear “When You & I Were True” had made it onto the new album, it’s an old song but isn’t on any of John’s solo albums to date, and the live version last night was beautiful. “Not My Love” from the new album also stood out, and his current single “There Was a Man” seemed a lot rockier than the recorded version, which really worked.

Overall it was an incredible night, and after playing an encore of three or four songs, John Spillane and friends left the stage to a standing ovation.

I will leave you with a music video I created for John Spillane a good number of years ago now, but which people still seem to enjoy - I discovered the other day after putting it up on my own profile that IrishMusicCentral had already put it up and it has over 6,000 views!