"Viva la Vida" takes us back to days where you could make a music video where you just play your instrument and add some cool 80's overlay effects. Minus the whole 80's adjective, the video does a pretty good job bringing it back to basics. Coldplay plays their instruments with conviction but it takes more than that lately to keep our attention, so what is so special about this video? Well, Coldplay's lead man Chris Martin does a great job miming his lyrics using hand motions and body language. Chris is developing quite a sense of his own brand of fashion, and he brings that fashion to his videos. The array of effects used sometimes increases visual presentation and other times muddles up the concept photography. Also, the band stands out a bit too much from the background. It's hard to be so judgmental on one of the best songs of the year but on the whole; the video sometimes isn't all that entertaining. As it stands now the great song is the driving force in the video not necessarily the video itself.