cheapening the incredible

without CGI:

The creation of an incredible event on film depends upon the ability of an individual (or group thereof) to manipulate and guide the environment, physical objects, light, time, and actors to create a particular moment.

with CGI:

The creation of an incredible event on film depends upon the ability of an individual (or group thereof) to imagine and simulate some *possible* moment.

The problem here is with possibilia. What defines the possible moment? In fact, the possible is defined by the actual - we cannot intuit or a priori predict the possible. We discover it by attempting it. Without CGI, one demonstrates the limits of the possible by testing them empirically. With CGI, one foresakes the possible (and thus the interest of its limits) for the imagination.

Here also, admittedly, there are limits - but are these as interesting as the limits of possibility in the world?