Downton Abbey stars Allen Leech, Dominic West, Robert James-Collier, Douglas Reith, Sarah Crowden, Penelope Wilton, Paul Giamatti, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael and Harry Hadden-Paton

If comfort viewing is what you’re in the market for, longtime fans of Downton Abbey can be confident that’s what they’ll get with the third (and supposedly final) movie, which has been dubbed The Grand Finale.

The new film in the big screen spin-off trilogy features a sprawling cast that includes Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Paul Giamatti, Elizabeth McGovern and Penelope Wilton, and follows the Crawleys in the summer of 1930 as they deal with various looming threats of social disgrace.

Billed as the final Downton outing after six seasons, two movies and 15 years of the much-loved historical drama franchise, reviews for the film began trickling in on Wednesday evening.

So far, critics are pretty split over the new film from director Simon Curtis, with most agreeing that it is, indeed, comforting and nostalgic, but with others feeling like the franchise has outstayed its welcome.

Others felt there were too many characters to feasibly give all of them sufficient screentime, while some insisted the film did a good job of juggling so many cast members.

HuffPost UK found it to be a beautiful send-off with a timely message, but there have been many more mixed........

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