I think there’s some sour grapes on here because we don’t have access to Legacy, but this is more than a decade of work and it has been a labor of love, I’m not comfortable brushing aside all that dedication and effort as MV just doing whatever he wants, he could really be much less considerate if it was the case that he was exclusively altering to personal taste.
Speaking only for myself, this isn’t a case of sour grapes. I’m very happy with version 1.0 of 4K77, and the improvements being worked on for 2.0 just push it over the top. No, the reason I’m down on Verta is because he’s courted this cult of personality surrounding himself predicated on this hypothetically perfect preservation of Star Wars that, after all these years, he still has almost nothing to show from it. Further, what little he has shown, it seems clear that he is grossly misrepresenting the process used to achieve those results (I’m trying very hard not to use the word “lie”). I’m just very exhausted by having to continually pretend that Verta’s Legacy project is worth being discussed in the same conversation as legitimate works of preservation and reconstruction like 4K77 or Despecialized. Or worse, that it is somehow superior to those efforts despite the fact that not a soul on Earth has seen it. If Mike ever sees fit to release this thing, I’m more than happy to evaluate it on its own merits. I look forward to having that conversation in the year 2086. In the meantime, I wish we could all move on and stop hailing as a hero the guy selling something that, at this point, might just be snake oil.
I think this is well said, some other similar posts saying the same too. Mike’s heart is in the right place, and good on him, and I too would love to see this in entirety one day, either officially released or not.
My one criticism (like others) would be in any situations where he is saying or even alluding that it’s a restoration in the more truest form. I for years have always said if you want to understand a true film restoration the stuff guys like Robert A. Harris’ have done, that is the science of restoring motion picture films. Unlikely it would happen but if a day came that Disney hired him and gave him all the support and access to source what he needed the world over, I feel we would see the right thing done without personal creative touches added.
Aside from that I think having guys like Mike with the legitimacy he has in that field helps, but it’s important his contributions are kept grounded and labelled correctly.