Many of the negative reviews seem to come from people misunderstanding how the Maya are portrayed, likely because they don’t have much familiarity with their history. There’s this idea that the Maya were gentle and didn’t practice human sacrifice, which brings to mind a trip my wife and I took to visit her family in Guatemala. The most memorable part was seeing American tourists swimming in pools of water—pools that we suspected might contain the remains of countless sacrificial victims, mostly young boys around fourteen years old. I certainly wouldn't swim in that water; I know what’s down there. *Apocalypto* touches on this subject, but it doesn't really explain that, like much of Central and South America, sacrifices were performed to avert disaster—in this case, a drought that occurred around the time they began interacting with Europeans. The film also fails to capture the essence of their culture. However, it does highlight the fact that those being sacrificed weren’t typically members of Mayan society itself but rather people from conquered territories within the empire. That was also something the Aztecs did. Ultimately though, it's a savage struggle for survival and an enjoyable one at that.

Source on TMDB