‘The Last Templar’ on NBC: It’s just another knight fight

By MIKE PEARSON

The movie special stars Mira Sorvino as an archaeologist.

“The Last Templar” wants to be “The Da Vinci Code.”

Not even close.

Still, NBC’s four-hour historical extravaganza (9 p.m. Sunday and Monday) captures enough of the religious-mystery spirit to entertain those who aren’t too demanding about their religion or their mystery.

Based on the novel by Raymond Khoury, “The Last Templar” finds Mira Sorvino playing Tess Chaykin, a feisty archaeologist who gets caught up in a global chase for the truth about the Knights Templar.

You know the Templars, the once-trusted band of medieval fighters who grew rich and powerful beyond the comfort level of the Catholic Church they served. For political reasons, the order was later destroyed.

The miniseries opens with a lavish gala in New York, where treasures from the Vatican Museum are being displayed. As the upper-crust guests sip champagne and mingle, a quartet of horsemen dressed in 12th-century Templar garb rides into the gallery and begins smashing display cases. They’re after a particular item: a “decoder” unearthed by Tess’ archaeologist father.

What is a determined single mom like Tess to do? She corrals a police horse and chases the thieves, which leads to a confrontation with boyish FBI agent Sean Daly (Scott Foley). Naturally, there’s chemistry beneath the faux bitterness. Naturally, she convinces him that the truth behind the robbery lies in the Middle East.

Before you know it, they’re jetting off to the desert, where clues to the Templar treasure -- a mythical hoard supposedly lost at sea -- lie.

As with Dan Brown’s best seller, there’s religious malfeasance afoot. A duty-bound monsignor (Victor Garber) tries to thwart the lover-explorers, and the miniseries routinely flashes to the past, where we see scenes of medieval Templars fighting in Jerusalem and trying to protect their secrets, even as the Vatican orders the destruction of their knightly order.

Tess is suitably scrappy as a woman determined to safeguard her father’s most important discovery, and Foley has a nice turn as an ultra-Catholic cop who finds his lust (or is it love?) for Tess getting the better of him.

There’s also a late-film appearance by screen veteran Omar Sharif as a wise sage who teaches Tess a lesson about faith. Sharif is totally wasted in the role, and the brevity of his appearance seems little more than a gimmick.

“The Last Templar” doesn’t explain some situations. (How is Tess able to afford that swank Manhattan apartment? Why did no one before Tess figure out the purpose of the decoder?) And the last two hours become a travelogue at the expense of coherent plotting.

Still, you know what you’re getting with a miniseries like this. It’s TV adventure by the book: a little humor, a little action and a lot of nonsense punctuated by commercial breaks.