What is my username? That tells you just about everything.
I'd love to hear some detail of why you think it's a bad film. Not why you don't like it, but an actual objective reasoning why it's not good.
If I remember correctly, I watched this in a period of a number of both Julianne Moore movies and British movies. I hate Julianne Moore, and I am not fond of British movies. It has been far too long since I last watched Children of Men to precisely detail the elements I disliked but, if my memory serves me correctly,
Andrew Sarris' review - especially this part, is pretty close:
The world created by Mr. Cuarón and his collaborators—dystopia, schmystopia, as I like to say—is so laughably unbelievable, even as sci-fi fantasy, that I find it hard to write about with a straight face. Yet what I find particularly irksome about it is its pseudo-humanism and its calculating political correctness.
As I said, it has been too long. Probably worth a rewatch, but I'm unsure I'll be able to go through with it.
You are aware that it's loosely based on a true
set of brothers, right? Also, you know that the
Lincoln letter recited in the film is real, right? You're also aware that there's an
actual policy preventing groups of siblings from serving in combat at the same time, right? Given those things, I'd say the silliness drops off a bit, but, that's just, like, my opinion, man.
Now that I didn't know. I wondered about the possible historicity a few months ago and searched, but didn't find anything. Indeed, all I found were more people complaining about the lack of plausibility of the premise. You mention the Sole Survivor Policy - something which has no bearing on this film considering that it deals with World War II, and the Sole Survivor Policy didn't come into place until 1948, three years later.
Furthermore, I fail to see the importance of the Bixby letter. So, some woman lost her sons and Lincoln sent a letter of condolence. Such a situation - as sad as it may be - is no reason to risk needlessly the lives of other soldiers to save the one surviving son. What if a woman has but one son to begin with? She stands to loose her only child if he were to die in the war; the result is the same: childlessness.
However, despite the harshness of the above paragraphs, I must thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'm very surprised I've never run into the story of the Niland Brothers before, what with all the history and legal books I've read.