This review of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” will contain spoilers. I’m sorry, but that’s how it must be. And honestly, do you really need to read a review of the final installment of what is arguably one of the most popular book series of all time to decide whether or not to read it?

p. There is a lot to enjoy in the last novel. For starters, the use of magic really received the Emeril treatment; Rowling really BAMMED it up a notch. Every page was ripe with quasi-Latin spells flying to and fro. Frankly, this book will make the best movie. The special effects, I can say now, will be spectacular.

p. Humor is also a major part of the book; there were many occasions in which something that could only happen in the Harry Potter universe would send me careening into laughter. The first time this happens is when Harry is escaping Privet Drive; he is separated from Hagrid, and casts a spell, “Accio Hagrid!” (It doesn’t work.) It was ironic because, while waiting for the book to come out, some friends and I were discussing if magic had limits. We decided that there are limitations on the Summoning Charm; for instance, “Accio Norway” wouldn’t work. Summoning a whole country would probably have some drastic consequences. I also laughed when Harry, looking for a Horcrux, asks Professor Flitwick about the history of the Ravenclaw house in the middle of a battle: “A little extra wisdom never goes amiss, Potter, but I hardly think it would be much use in this situation!”

p. Pride is also prevalent throughout the book — there are moments when I wanted to yell out my support before realizing that I was reading a children’s book alone in my room. One of my favorite moments was when a Death Eater spits on Professor McGonagall and Harry tortures him with the Cruciatus Curse in retaliation.

p. The other major point of pride is Luna’s painting of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and herself, ringed with gold chains formed from the word “friends.” Of course the interesting thing about the painting is that the portraits are inanimate. In the wizarding world where it is commonplace for people in pictures to wave and in paintings to travel from one frame to another, Luna’s art creates a paradox that makes the normal abnormal, and therefore particularly moving and especially poignant.

p. It was inevitable that good people would have to die in the pursuit to destroy evil. Sadly, we never find out who most of those people are. Of the more than fifty mentioned deaths, we know of only Fred Weasley, Lupin, Tonks and Colin Creevey. One of the saddest lines comes after Harry sees Colin has died: “He was tiny in death.” This paltry list of the dead leaves one wondering who else died for Harry. Probably no other major characters, as they would have been mentioned. But what about the volumes of characters mentioned once or twice? Did Romilda Vane or Hannah Abbott kick the bucket? Was Professor Sinistra there to fight? And what happened to Neville’s grandmother?

p. This dissatisfaction extends to the epilogue. We learn very little about the characters, and only a few characters at that. What do Harry, Ron and Hermione do nowadays? Where is Luna? Why on earth would Malfoy propagate the inherent evil in his family by not naming his son something nice like Bob or John, but instead Scorpius?

p. The weightiest problem is that, in what is certainly the greatest epic story of the last several decades, a crucial element that makes a story successful is missing. A story is about a changing character, one who suffers a moral struggle but ultimately ends up making the right choice.

p. For Harry there is no struggle. From the moment he told the Sorting Hat he didn’t want to be in Slytherin until a flash of green light dropped Voldemort like so many Wingardium Leviosa spells gone bad, there was no doubt that Harry would fulfill his destiny and destroy the personification of evil.

p. In fact, it’s difficult to identify with Harry for this very reason; moral struggles make good stories because we ourselves go through moral struggles all the time. It’s also the reason it was shocking that Harry was an accidental horcrux. He literally had a lamprey of evil stuck to his soul — and he was still straight as an arrow?

p. It is equally disturbing to learn of Dumbledore’s troubled past, even after getting the real story from Aberforth. We all envision our heroes and role models as perfect (or as close as one can come), and when we learn that the man who was responsible for leading the fight against evil, the greatest living wizard, had a rather sordid past, it sullies his image in the Pensieve of the reader’s mind.

p. Instead, Snape offers what is one of the most complex characters in literature, at least in contemporary fiction. The complete trust held in Snape by both Voldemort and Dumbledore provided no means of distinction, and, even though he killed Dumbledore, it was unclear whether it was merely Voldemort’s order or if it played into a complex and long-term plan of Dumbledore’s. In a society in which moral relativism is becoming more and more important, Snape is truly the genuine hero of the series.

p. I was struck at a release party I attended for the seventh book by some of the young children, dressed up in robes, waving wands, downing Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans; at 10 years, the Harry Potter series was older than many of its most intense fans. I felt sad for those too young to read, and for future generations; they may never know the immense anxiety associated with waiting for the next book that so many have known. After all, without Harry Potter, we’d all still be ignorant Muggles.

This summer has often been dubbed the “summer of sequels.” This alliterative sound byte, though catchy, has proven a charming misnomer. In actuality, we have undergone a summer of inconclusive trilogies and surprising fourths. We have, these past couple of years, had to put up with regurgitated material so poorly digested that we’ve found ourselves stuck in a land of movie deja vu — feeling that summer entertainment has become largely a sort of recurring dream (or nightmare, in some cases). Not only this, but movie producers and directors seem to bank on the power of the sequel.

p. They know that the name (“Spiderman,” “Pirates,” “Harry”) is in itself potent enough to draw impressive crowds to their films. Because of this undeserved pull, sequels no longer have to be good to make money. In many ways, ours is a generation that can no longer recognize a good movie from a bad one. Our enthusiasm for cinematic cesspools such as “Transformers,” “Spiderman 3,” “Invasion” and even the more understated “Evening” attests to this sad trend. Thus, blatant political agendas (“Invasion”), formulaic and mopey romance (“Evening”), utter mindlessness and lack of cohesion (“Transformers”) and goofy scripts (“Spiderman 3”) are sufficiently masked by sexed-up special effects and big-name actors. Enough sweeping cynicism, though; there are smaller fish to fry.

p. Pseudo-trilogies have returned. Ever since the unfortunate decision to create an addendum to the impeccable “Omen” movies (or perhaps before), Hollywood has had increasingly fewer scruples with capitalizing off the success of done deals. “Star Wars” (the old ones), “Lord of the Rings,” “Back to the Future,” “Indiana Jones,” “The Godfather” and even “Pirates” look to become a rare breed as the trilogy becomes increasingly ambiguous. “Rush Hour 3,” “Spiderman 3,” “Shrek the Third” and “Oceans 13” leave room for fourths, fifths and sixths — however painful the idea may be. “Pirates” and “The Bourne Ultimatum” rush heroically forth as the unapologetic closers of their threesomes, tying the plot knots firmly in the good old fashioned denouement style. (Sometimes it’s all right to end with a death, wedding or self-revelation.) Other movies take up the threads at different points in their series.

p. “Fantastic Four” limps onward, picking up the pieces of an embarrassingly awful cinematic debut. The highly anticipated “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” provides yet another dark installment in its series. Finally, “Live Free or Die Hard” proves another of the rare breed of unexpected fourths and, in my opinion, cuts through the staleness of redundancy with a more immortal brand of charm.

p. In this summer of sequels, why is “Live Free or Die Hard” such a breath of fresh air? Why did the older, ’80s-based cult of followers (our parents) suddenly find itself in the company of hordes of youthful enthusiasts? Why was it almost as talked about and anticipated in Europe as in the States? Possibly for the same reasons that there will never be enough “Mission: Impossible” movies or “James Bond” flicks. Why do we want these action series to go on and on and on, episodic as they are? James Bond, Ethan Hawke and John McClane offer us real, manly heroes. Not the popular anti-heroes of the day, but shining white knights, with swords, sass and sex appeal. We aren’t ready to shuck off the good guy glamour of films that succeed in delighting us every time. Heroes swagger; villains lose; things explode. We love it.

p. The Die Hard tetralogy (though hopefully it won’t stop there) provides the quintessential example of the action flick. Unabashed, unpretentious and anything but understated — they are comfortingly consistent. The “yippee ki yay” charm of all-American hero McClane hits home even in a time when patriotism, unfortunately, isn’t the most popular of persuasions. Whether he’s fighting German thieves posing as terrorists (led by Alan Rickman in “Die Hard”), rogue soldiers and South American thugs in “Die Harder,” the German relations of the first movie’s villains (Jeremy Irons, to be precise) in “Die Hard with a Vengeance” or even slightly wimpy techno-villains who fight with the ‘click, click’ of a mouse (in the latest installment), Willis shines as the cop character he always seems to play. There are many reasons for the appeal of McClane.

p. We love his complete bravado in the face of ridiculous odds; he is a one-man army and says obnoxious things that should get him killed. He (quite literally) laughs at do-badders all the time — because he actually finds them amusing. He sees villains for what they are: clowns. Their warped view of the world inspires no patience, only exasperation. They’re not scary, because McClane will absolutely always win. He will die hard, or not at all. If this was his only attribute, he’d be no better than hordes of heroes who are consumed by their own love of heroism. To temper his simmeringly cool impertinence, McClane is also a reluctant hero.

p. That is, after all, the truest kind. He does not seek glory and so is covered with it. We relate to him because he’s just a tired cop who wants to go home for the evening — perhaps have a few beers and just watch television for a couple of hours. He would rather not have to save the world time and time again, but, since no one else possesses enough initiative or savvy — and because fate is a laughing trickster — his number comes up again and again.

p. The “Die Hard” series has its flaws. It may have reached its pinnacle with the first two films. It may have been surprising and inconsistent to write his wife out of the picture via divorce. Maybe after “Die Hard 8: Die Hardest of Them All,” “yippee ki yay” will start to get a little old. Maybe not. Perhaps Willis has landed the role of a lifetime; he is Joseph Campbell’s “hero with a thousand faces.” Though the world may change around him, as long as McClane remains “an analogue clock in a digital world” — the unchanging cowboy, who hearkens back to Hawkeye, Jim Lassiter and John Wayne — summer will always call for a movie with him in it. And in summer of sequels after summer of sequels, he will continually be smiled upon.

Summer has always been about driving with the top down, the wind in your hair and the speakers blaring. New albums from old stars like Paul McCartney’s “Memory Almost Full” and Wilco’s “Sky Blue Sky” as well as records from relative newcomers like Bishop Allen’s “The Broken String” and Justice’s “Cross” have found their way into iPods and stereos everywhere, leading the wide array of new sounds that premiered this summer. To help you weed out the good from the bad, check out our list of the top five albums since May.

p. **The Polyphonic Spree — “The Fragile Army”**
The Polyphonic Spree, the Dallas-based symphonic rock group that first gained notoriety in 2004 when they were featured on “Scrubs” and performed at the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Concert, has released their new album, “The Fragile Army.” Though they band dumped its trademark robes in favor of black army outfits, its members continue to improve on their unique and catchy style. Because there are a dozen musicians and 10 vocalists, every song has a quality of group singing that begs the listener to sing along. The sound is driven by additional percussion, lending the songs more of a rock beat (but don’t worry; other instrumentals are still terrific, and the vocals as powerful as ever). The third track, “Get Up and Go,” is exceptionally motivational, and provides some of the heaviest rock sounds on the album. Other notable tracks include “Guaranteed Nightlife,” “Watch Us Explode (Justify)” and “The Championship.”

p. **Editors — “An End Has a Start”**
Editors, an English band led by Tom Smith, has released it’s second studio album, titled “An End Has a Start.” Editors is reminiscent of Interpol, Franz Ferdinand and U2, but is much more than a mere tribute band. The album itself is a sort of tour through the history of rock, especially as songs of all tempos are included, often butting right up against each other. As an interesting side effect, their own youthful optimism provides an odd but charming contrast in songs that otherwise have dark overtones. The first track, “Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors,” is a great song for the dance floor, and is worth listening to every second of its five minutes. “Bones,” as well as a handful of other songs, can point their origins to tracks from the previous Editors album, “The Back Room.” “Bones” points to “Munich,” one of the best tracks on the previous album, and has a great opening riff followed by an awesome tune with commanding lyrics. Although “An End Has a Start” doesn’t quite live up to “The Back Room,” it’s still an excellent follow-up with some real treats.

p. **Wilco — “Sky Blue Sky”**
Yes, Wilco, the all-American alt-country band, has sold a few songs off its new LP, “Sky Blue Sky,” to Volkswagen for the car company’s new ad campaign. Big deal. This summer, the band took a lot of heat from fans and the press for “selling out,” but frankly, what’s so bad about a band opening up a little to get more universal exposure? It certainly didn’t affect the quality of the group’s music. “Sky Blue Sky” is a great album, and continues in the band’s trend of tweaking and manipulating its sound from record to record to keep things fresh, interesting and unique, especially within the band’s own catalog. Between the booze-laden “A.M.,” the country twang of “Being There,” the happy-go-lucky pop songs of “Summerteeth,” the trippy, Radiohead-ish “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” and the eerie “A Ghost is Born,” Wilco has spread its influences and styles over a well-traveled career. With “Sky Blue Sky,” a post-rehab Jeff Tweedy seems content with the world, and the rocking chair vibes of the album make it perfect or driving on a sunny Sunday afternoon. This may not be the band’s best record, but it certainly holds up next to its predecessors.

p. **Spoon — “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”**
Spoon’s 2007 album “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga,” despite its baby-talk title, is anything but infantile. From start to finish, the latest record from the Austin, Tex., group proves to be the band’s most cohesive to date. The band’s trademark sound succeeds in its ability to simultaneously be poppy and experimental. “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” has a perfect mix of radio-ready sing-alongs and trippy, kaleidoscopic tracks that, when listened to side by side, play off each other. The strange, off-beat tracks end up sounding like misunderstood pop songs and the fun tracks, by comparison, seem gain a level of irony in their niceity. Track two, “The Ghost of You Lingers,” features whirling atonal piano chords and spacey vocals and lyrics. Track three, “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb,” is the most dance-ready rocker on the album. The two songs are entirely different in both style and substance, yet the jerky pull from one direction to the next gives both songs more meaning. Every track wanes both beautiful and ugly, making the album as a whole a wonderful listen. This is definitely Spoon’s best album, which is saying a lot after the vast successes of “Gimme Fiction,” “Kill the Moonlight” and “Girls Can Tell.”

p. **Bishop Allen — “The Broken String”**
Bishop Allen spent 2006 writing, recording and releasing an EP every month. 12 discs and 58 songs later, the group had built up plenty of material with which to throw an album together, and the result was “The Broken String.” Sure, for those of us who heard all the EPs as they came out, parts of the album weren’t as exciting and new as they could have been, but as a best-of collection for those who have never heard of the band, “The Broken String” succeeds triumphantly. The band’s happy, fun and unassuming pop songs are breezy and light, proving to be perfect for hot summer days of ceiling fans and iced tea. “Butterfly Nets” may be the sweetest of them all, as a woman’s voice floats over softly strummed acoustic chords, singing “Armed with this small butterfly net only / I will face the world alone and never be lonely.” The childlike nature of the lyrics and sentimentalities bring us back to the easy bliss of youth.

This summer saw the release of dozens of movies. Some, such as “Transformers” and “Superbad,” were worth the price of admission. Others, such as “Spiderman 3” and “Daddy Day Camp,” shouldn’t be watched even if they pay you. In order to help you conserve cash for worthwhile films, here is a list of our picks for the best movies of the summer.

**“Knocked Up”**
It’s every sexually active person’s nightmare — pregnant after a one-night stand. “Knocked Up,” written and directed by Judd Apatow, who has worked on films like “Anchorman” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” takes this premise in an interesting direction.

p. While celebrating a promotion, Alison (Katherine Heigl, “Grey’s Anatomy”) hooks up with Ben (Seth Rogen, “Freaks and Geeks”) after they meet at a club. Eight weeks later, she discovers she is pregnant, which she is afraid may jeopardize her new career, and which shocks the weed-smoking Ben, whose “job” involves creating a website with his roommates that lists movies in which celebrities get naked. They begin dating, but eventually Alison dumps Ben because of his juvenile attitude toward commitment.

p. Ben has a choice — continue his admittedly low-quality life, or make a few strides toward responsibility. Sadly, this movie was misrepresented as a comedy, when in, fact it, is a drama. It’s also completely inappropriate for children — there are gratuitous shots of a baby crowning, and I’m fairly sure gynecologists prefer the term “rectum” to “asshole.” “Knocked Up,” however, overcomes these faults, and is surprisingly charming. Rogen and Heigl give excellent performances, and Paul Rudd has a great supporting role as Alison’s brother-in-law who goes to Las Vegas and eats mushrooms with Ben. “Knocked Up” offers great performances, good writing and lots and lots of nudity.

p. __— Alex Guillén__

p. **“Live Free or Die Hard”**
What made “Live Free or Die Hard” such a hit? In a Hollywood dominated by CGI extravagance, the fourth “Die Hard” film proves fresh and different by mimicking the straightforward action stylings of the series’ earlier installments. With the return of John McClane comes the return of the good old-fashioned American blow-’em-up action flick. Sure, the movie’s sequences are beyond ridiculous (the harrier chase scene was more than a bit over-the-top), but the action seems more believable and a lot more real when compared to utterly implausible computer graphics. Fantastical CGI action scenes just can’t compare to something as simple as a car flying into a helicopter. We’re American. We like to watch things blow up. End of story. On top of the film’s genius in ’80s style explosions, the story was actually very good. The writing was quick and witty — Bruce Willis has a ton of classic one-liners. Plus, McClane has always been a great action hero. Despite all the absurd, superhuman things he does, we actually relate to him and like him for being an everyman. McClane gets beaten up and bloodied, and we love him for it.

__— Conor McKay__

p. **“Transformers”**
p. “Transformers” is a summer thrill ride featuring an exhilarating showdown between good and evil robots as the future of mankind is on the line. This gripping plot sets the stage for Michel Bay (“Pearl Harbor”) to create an action powerhouse to remember. A talented cast compliments the most realistic special effects imaginable and provides us with the blockbuster of the summer.

p. Shia LaBeouf (“Disturbia”) shines as the courageous teenager with awkward tendencies around the hottie-next-door. Their relationship allows the film to show heart and humor at all the right times (cue the robot car playing “Sexual Healing” at the pivotal moment). LaBeouf is later aided by soldiers who endure the initial evil Decepticon attack in Qatar. The selfless defense of the human race on the part of the Autobots garners unexpected sympathy. The most remarkable part of this film is how convincingly Bay blends his CGI robots with real-world backgrounds. Any fan of intense action scenes highlighted by a booming soundtrack will look forward to watching this movie in slow motion to view every jaw-dropping detail. Fast-paced fight sequences, exciting car chases and thunderous mid-city showdowns in “Transformers” will leave you begging for a sequel.

p. __— Mary Bonney__

p. **“The Bourne Ultimatum”**
It isn’t often that a movie makes you think while it keeps you gripping the sides of your seat in white-knuckled suspense. “The Bourne Ultimatum” is one of those rare movies where the all-out adrenaline rush doesn’t negatively impact its intelligence. The movie makes full use of its status as the conclusion of the “Bourne” trilogy to be suspenseful and unpredictable throughout. Matt Damon (“The Departed”) gives his best performance of the series, and the subtle layers of meaning he presents make this a movie that you definitely need to watch more than once.

p. The supporting cast also makes this film shine, their complex web of motivations bringing everyone to life. The fights and action sequences are dazzling. Director Paul Greengrass (“United 93”) continues to use hand-held cameras to great effect, and while the shaky view may dizzy some, few can dispute the intense realism that they bring to the insane stunts, brawls and car crashes throughout. One of the few examples of a movie that actually delivers on all of its promises (and then some), “The Bourne Ultimatum” is a fitting climax for one of the best trilogies of recent years, and one of the best movies of the summer.

p. __— Ted Hogeman__

p. **“Superbad”**
The jokes are lewd, crude, rude and entirely socially unacceptable — but it works. “Superbad,” the sex-charged high school bromance from the guys who produced “Knocked Up” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” may be driven by four-letter words, bed and bathroom humor and an inordinate number of hand-drawn penises, but the foul-mouthed nature of the film serves to make it feel more organic and true. Best friends Seth and Evan, played by Jonah Hill (“Knocked Up”) and Michael Cera (“Arrested Development”), respectively, find themselves in the final two weeks of senior year, wrestling equally with virginity and the prospect of separating for college at the end of the summer.

p. The characters are very relatable — the emotions are honest, the actions and reactions of the pair are entirely believable and the movie’s awkward situations (sexual and otherwise) perfectly mirror those in real life. Writers Seth Rogen (“Knocked Up”) and Evan Goldberg (producer, “Knocked Up”) based the characters on themselves. Maybe that’s why the film feels so natural — or maybe it’s because the two are geniuses when comes to writing conversation. The break-neck speed at which Seth and Evan spit offensive bullshit keeps up the non-stop laughter, making “Superbad” the funniest movie of summer.

p. __— Conor McKay__