lorenebryant I watch a movie to escape reality -- not criticize someone else's version of it. I wasn't expecting a history lesson or a documentary. I was entertained and I would watch it again. I'm not a movie critic and I don't need to try to impress readers with my keen eye, sharp wit and acid-drenched critique. They had 2.5 hours to create an entertaining movie with limited resources about a time and place in history interesting to explore. I don't expect each scene to be perfect in artistic portrayal or historically as accurate as a visual dissertation. Take it for what it is and don't expect it to be something it isn't. Enjoy the scenery, the good acting acting and the story. If you don't like it, turn it off or find something else. Don't discourage others from getting to experience this fun movie.

angela_dida The book The Last Templars is an amazing book, one of the best books I've read but this mini series is awful, the have changed so many stuff on the book, I understand that you have to take some stuff out to make it as smaller as possible but why change so many and stuff that you don't even need to change like for example why change the cause of death of the 4th Templar's family? I was expecting something better then this, my hopes were really low for this mini series cause they always change stuff from the actual story, but not this low, the actors were pretty good, what i have imagined they would look like, but Tess's character was really different, Tess is a amazing woman, fearless and all this, but in the movie I think they overdid and whats with the shoes?2/10 for the series, 7/10 for the actors, 10/10 for the bookThank you Raymond Khoury and everybody that helped with this book because it was amazing, but who ever wrote the script and who ever came up with these changes, sorry but you suck.

classicalsteve Probably the most glaring flaw of this rather over-long but somewhat entertaining religious-mystery in the same vain as the Da Vinci Code is its depiction of Turkey which looks more like Saudi Arabia in the film. (Turkey is a relatively plush and green landscape with some brown rolling hills, but not like the Sahara desert of Iraq and Saudi Arabia.) According to the back-story, the Templar Knights of the Middle Ages were on the verge of extinction in the late 13th century. (At dawn on Friday, 13 October 1307, many Templars were arrested on trumped up charges, and many were executed which destroyed the Order of Templar Knights.) The Templars have in their possession a document purportedly revealing the location of ancient Jewish-Hebrew treasures uncovered beneath the ruins of the ancient Jewish Temple of Jerusalem which was destroyed by the Romans in 66 CE. The master of the Templars ordered the document to be taken by a special envoy of knights back to Turkey. Jerusalem is under siege from Saracens who were conquering part of Jerusalem which was under the control of Christian Crusaders and Byzantine Eastern Orthodox. (Islam would permanently take control of Jerusalem and the Near East in the 15th century, only a few decades before Columbus' voyage.) Fast-forward 700 years. At a special exhibition at a museum in New York, artifacts of ancient and early medieval Christianity are on display. One of the artifact-finders is an Indiana Jones type, Tess Chaykin (Mira Sorvino). According to the story, her father had found the Cross of Constantine which he supposedly held on his deathbed when he converted to Christianity in the mid-4th century, an artifact which just happens to be on display. In the film, the ornate Cross itself looks like a Latin Cross in the style of many centuries later, more akin to those of the time of Charlemagne, circa 800 CE and later, not like the Cross Constantine would have known. Constantine's Cross looked more like an "X" with a "P" on the top, called the "Chi Rho". This is just one example of many little "flaws" in the film which would certainly cause the raising of eyebrows of many-an historian of Early Christianity.Then four guys on horses dressed in Templar garb with helmets storm the exhibit and snag several of the artifacts, including the Cross and some sort of 13th-century decoder with metal gears about the size of your average box of corn flakes. Again, such an artifact would have only been conducive no earlier than the Renaissance in the late 15th century, not as early as the 1200's as suggested by the film, another one of the film's interesting "innovations". Tess subdues the "Templar" with the Cross but the others get away. Turns out the entire escapade was masterminded by Bill Vance (Kenneth Welsh), a fellow archaeologist and friend of Tess' father. Turns out he only wanted the decoder because of a secret document he found which is in "Templar Code". However, Vance's accomplices are being killed by an assailant whose motives are as of yet unknown. FBI agent Sean Daley (Scott Foley) is hot on Tess' trail, at first suspecting she's behind the murders of the "Templar" thieves of the museum. We also learn Daley is a devout Catholic, and because the artifacts belong to the Vatican, he turns to a Monsignor in the diocese of New York, played by Victor Garber, who interestingly enough played Jesus in the film version of the hippie-religious musical "Godspell", produced in the early 1970's.The film then becomes similar to "The Da Vinci Code", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", and "National Treasure" where the codes lead to other secret messages which in turn lead to other places. All the while, we get flashbacks to the small band of Templars of the late 13th century and what they were trying to accomplish. The trail leads Tess and Agent Daley to Turkey where the messages claim they hid a secret artifact in a Byzantine Church. One of the film's strengths is we see the episode in flashback of the Templar's adventures only as the next clue reveals what they had done. Part of what makes the whole thing work is a memorable performance by Mira Sorvino. Although I'm sure she wasn't nominated for any awards for this film, we run with it largely because of her. I thought Foley's performance as the FBI agent seemed a beat inconsistent, where he's portrayed as a devout catholic while simultaneously seeming uncaring about the Templar artifacts. So much of the film has elements which mirror the Da Vinci Code. Bill Vance is very similar to the character of Sir Leigh Teabing, scholar of Early Christianity and the so-called Priory. Vance is portrayed as the foremost scholar of the Templar Knights. The enigmatic and silent assailant is a cold assassin, similar to Silas of the Da Vinci Code, although in "The Last Templar" he's black instead of an albino. Tess has elements of both Indiana Jones and Robert Langdon, and of course she's coupled together with a member of the opposite sex who's an FBI agent, similar to Agent Sophie Neveu of the French police who gets together with Langdon. Overall, the story seems to be about archaeology versus faith which has become a hot-button issue in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, particularly in the wake of the discoveries of known Christian gospels found in Egypt in the 1940's. The theme is a decent one, although I am not sure I bought the overall point of view of the story which is revealed in the final climactic scene. Similar to Leigh Teabing, Bill Vance becomes a rather enigmatic character who seems at odds with who is by film's end.

krabat-0 *** This review may contain spoilers ***Mira Sorvino was Sandra Bullock, never a sad face below 7/10Scott Foley was tom hanks/similar, and never really in play Nice settings, desert, island, plane, Land Roverserious pace-stopping adult talk to extend the script to 3 hoursunnecessary daughter and brother, who were never in playfoul search by cruel and non-establishment-representing delusional mad scientist for the means to tumble the Christian churchand then BAM, 2hrs 40 minutes in, right in your face the whole shebang turns Christian.Should have seen it coming. Male lead being catholic and all. But they actually masked it in hints and dibble-dabble half-voiced background story to build the male lead character. Honestly, it really was a shocker. For someone who goes a long way to avoid movies advocating Christianity over simply putting faith in what ever gets you through life, if was a transgression. Aside from that, either the script or its direction masks the actual implications of finding a gospel of Jesua from Nazareth. Christians would know what that means, but non-believers, who normally don't give a toss, has to sort of count fingers here, one, two, three... Ah, a gospel by Jesus means that he wasn't the Man. That he didn't die on a cross, or resurrect, thus laying waste to the foundations of the Christian / Catholic Church and making all of it's bloodshed in the name of just another disciple kinda unnecessary... That kind of story. And yes, Vatican priest gets famous last words:" We've put our faith in God for 2000 years, and our belief in the Saviour. We can survive any crazy stunt to discredit us". But, really, I don't care. I just feel robbed of my time. Mira Sorvino probably had a really good time, looking all the time as if she's having a really good time, powerful lady, her own woman, don't let anybody in, but will turn to God for help, when love strikes. Right - that's the scientific method, when everything else fails.This movie is made for Sundays. There is not an ounce of relevant tension in it. It should just be gobbled down like forgotten ice-cream melting on the counter. Or avoided for a diet more honest to its viewers.Or just labeled correctly: No thoughts necessary, Christian or otherwise, as you will leave as you came in. Un-changed. And we are not talking soul here, okay! 3/10