Don't come here and act like a film connoisseur, when you use a shit director - who doesn't even know anything about history - as an example of prime direction.
Stop reading false accounts for Apocalypto mixing Mayan with Aztec culture - postclassical Mayan culture did encounter the Spanish dudes and that's the period the movie is depicting. Learn some fucking history before you embarrass yourself next time.
Here, take a fucking clue:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/58493/15-facts-about-apocalypto
Pay particular attention to 3, 4, 6, 10, 15, in particular.
Show me anything from LOTR that closely comes to the above - based on a thru and thru children's fairy tale (I was reading that Bilbo Baggins shit when I was 9, literally); the message is that of children's books - don't be naughty or the boogeyman will get, be nice and you will get a f*cking candy; and the execution is childish too - that clip Salvo posted basically covers the naive nature of the entire franchise.
Which brings me to its target audience - slow-minded adults or kids 12 and younger.