Yeah, I know what you mean - a total disregard for historic accuracy which I thought really brought the film down
From the Apocalypto article on Wikipedia
Inaccuracies
The film has been accused of historical inaccuracy and racism by historians, Native Americans, and those in the archaeological community.[2] The film has been accused of fueling a stereotype of native Mesoamericans as bloodthirsty savages with few civilized achievements other than architecture.[2] For example, it was more typical of the Aztecs to practice the kind of human sacrifice depicted in the movie, rather than the Maya. The sun god Kukulkan, to whom the sacrifices are offered, is in fact the Maya equivalent of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and did not demand human sacrifice.
On the other hand, in Maya rituals prisoners of war were in fact killed "on top of the pyramid [