[SuziQ]

But they also spent an immense amount of time building their magnificent cities, with all that hieroglyphic writing carved in the stones, developed that beautiful and complex calendar, etc. I wonder how much time Gibson's movie devotes to that sort of thing.

This movie is about what brought about the decline and fall of the Mayan empire. What they'd done before was already done, same as with any movie about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. You may see displays of what they'd done before, but that wouldn't be what the film was about.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Yes, but the question is why Gibson is only interested in covering the violent, gory aspects of Mayan history. Normal people are not obsessed with violence.