I want to see the new film, but I can barely remember a thing from the previous two, so I’ll have to re-watch both. I remember liking both, and probably still will, but who knows? Perhaps I’ll find that they both suck.
While it would help to watch the first one, Into Darkness is never referenced or mentioned at all. It’s totally ignored. Neither of them really suck IMO, but Into Darkness was a clear step down from the first.
Maybe Nero flipped the “odd number curse” to be the even number curse.