“The Last Jedi” breaks all the Star Wars rules, and that makes it great.

Rian Johnson masterfully manipulates our expectations to give us something new and even surprising.

**WARNING: This place is strong with Last Jedi spoilers.**

Our first indication that Star Wars: The Last Jedi won’t be playing by the usual rules comes about two minutes in, when Luke Skywalker dismissively casts the previous film’s MacGuffin (his family lightsaber) over his shoulder. For a moment, I thought (as viewers are clearly intended to) that he’d discarded it in the ocean — a surprise, for sure, and a tremendous relief.

The best thing about The Last Jedi is that it refuses to play by the usual Star Wars rules — in fact, it seems to delight in breaking those rules. This is likely why some fans have reacted with such strong antipathy toward the film — unlike The Force Awakens, which was an entertaining and masterfully executed point-for-point remake of A New Hope, this film is something new and different. It is, in a way, the anti-Star Wars. Director Rian Johnson clearly understands what fans expect from a Star Wars film, and repeatedly subverts those expectations to surprise us.

The truth is, a series that began in 1977 with the promise of infinite adventure from a vast and…