You've probably already come up with reasons to be skeptical of The Last Airbender-- M. Night Shyamalan directing, casting white kids to play characters of other races in the original animated series, the whole "airbender" concept itself. But here's one I hadn't realized-- only today, less than a week before the movie opens wide for Fourth of July weekend, has Paramount released an actual clip from the movie, at Yahoo!.

That's not always a guaranteed sign of trouble-- we haven't seen any clips from Inception yet and I'm sure as hell still looking forward to that one. But standalone clips tend to reveal more about movies than carefully edited trailers will, and when they come late in the game-- like last week's Jonah Hex clips-- it's often a sign that they're not really sure you'll like it, so they're holding off as long as possible.

As for the new Airbender clip itself, it doesn't reveal all that much. Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) and an unidentified female character (help, Airbender fans?) witness the arrival of the Fire Nation, which is marked by some falling ash, a giant column of black smoke, and terrifying looking ships steaming into a harbor. It all looks fine, if a little green-screeny and Lord of the Rings inspired, and hard to judge the entire film as a result. But if you weren't all that interested in the movie before, it probably won't do much to convince you.

Check out the clip below and let us know what you think.

Watch in HD at Yahoo! Movies