works like this.
Hero has fun in village with family/villagers. Cloistered, intimate community. This goes on for the first third of the film with cute little twists and warning here and there.
Suddenly the evil Mayans storm the village and ruthlessly kill the fuck out of everyone and kidnap about 2 dozen of the men which they secure to walking harnesses escept for the hero's pregnant wife which he hides safely in a pit through a fluke.
much later after marching horribly through the jungle forever the hero and his imprisoned village people end up in Quetzalcoatalville where they are summarily marched up one of the altars to get ritually killed.
SUDDENLY AN ECLIPSE
everyone freaks out and they decide the god is appeased, JUST AS THE HERO IS ABOUT TO HAVE HIS HEART TORN FROM HIS CHEST
so they are all marched back down off the altar and brought to arena to be sport killed (I guess this occassionally happens) and of course, everyone is killed but our hero, who although deeply wounded, escapes into the jungle,
and that's where it turns into a superhero film.